What does Zhou Mengdie's poem Under the Bodhi Tree mean?

If Zhou Mengdie's recognition and admiration for Zhuangzi is an affirmation of his absolute freedom, then his acceptance of Zen is an exile from reality. Indeed, after he entered Taiwan Province alone, his life was bumpy and he had struggled and pursued. However, he always felt that the real world was not the place where his ideals could be pinned, so he turned his eyes to the secular world and sought liberation in Buddhism and Zen. Among many modernist poets in Taiwan Province, Zhou Mengdie's poems are the most religious and Zen. For example, "On the Ferry" wrote: "People are on the boat, the boat is on the water, and the water is endless/endless, endless with my joys and sorrows of life and death/does the water carry the boat and walk with me? /am I walking, full of boats and water? " The poem expounds the significance of Zen with the image of interdependence of all things, which makes the limited things communicate with the infinite things. Thus, instant and eternity, tangible and intangible, sadness and joy, sadness and joy are all integrated into one, and they have entered the realm of life and death. It was the bitter fate that made him find Zen, and also made his poems full of Zen meaning and philosophy. Therefore, the famous scholar Ye Jiaying called Zhou Mengdie "a poet who condensed his sadness with philosophical thoughts".

Although Zhou Mengdie liked Buddhism and Zen, he did not fall into religious meditation and mysticism. He joined the WTO. Just like this, his poems present two forces, one cold and the other hot, which are rare in Taiwan Province poetry circles, and also form his unique aesthetic style. He wrote in the famous "Under the Bodhi Tree":

Who is the man with a mirror in his heart?

Who will live barefoot all his life?

All eyes were blindfolded,

Who can make a fire in the snow and throw it into the snow?

Under the bodhi tree. A man with only half a face.

Look up to heaven and answer with a sigh

Want to sink to his blue from a height.

……

As we all know, Buddhists have the saying that "the body is like a bodhi tree and the heart is like a mirror". The poem begins with two questions: "Who is the person with a mirror in his heart?" "Who wants to be barefoot all his life?" It can be seen that behind the cold silence of Zen Buddhism is a soul that entered the WTO, especially the images of "fire" and "snow" in Taking Fire from Snow, which not only have philosophy, but also reflect deeper emotions. As some poetry critics have said, "It is not so much a philosophical poem as a collection of love poems, which is a reflection of feelings and emerges from another direction. Under the injury of reason, I feel deeper and more focused ... This process is painful, just like the struggle in Under the Bodhi Tree, Prison and Tian Wen, but the unity and harmony that I have been pursuing is the true meaning of the poet's contradiction. "