If I were a bird,
I should also sing with a hoarse throat:
This land hit by the storm,
This river of sadness and anger will surge forever,
This endless wind,
And the gentle dawn from the forest ...
And then I died,
Even feathers rot in the ground.
Why do I often cry?
Because I love this land deeply.
Ai Qing (19 10 ~ 1996), a poet in China, was originally named Jiang Haicheng, and his pen names were Ega, Kea and Linbi. He was born in Jinhua, Zhejiang. He studied in France in his early years and took an active part in revolutionary activities after returning home. The famous work Dayan River-My Nanny was published in 1933, which was his first poem, and established the basic artistic characteristics of his poems and his important position in the history of modern literature. His works have been translated into dozens of languages. He is the author of poetry anthology Dayan River-My Nanny, North China, To the Sun, Dawn Notice, etc.
Ai Qing is a realistic poet with a unique style, which has exerted an important influence on the history of China's new poetry. Most of his poems integrate personal destiny into the sufferings of the nation and the people, and convey the aspirations of the times and the people. Pablo neruda, a Chilean poet, once called Ai Qing "a great poet in China" in his memoirs.
His early poems chanted the fate of the nation, showing a poetic style that gradually turned from melancholy to tragic and high. In 1930s and 1940s, he published poems such as Dayan River, North China, His Second Death, Towards the Sun, Country Poetry, Anti-Fascism, Wilderness, Dawn Notice, and Drilling in the Snow.