Yaxian, whose real name is Wang Qinglin, is from Nanyang, Henan. Many of his poems are full of nostalgia for his hometown: you have been away from home for so many years/why are you still wearing that broken hat/No, that's the roof of your hometown /... 1949 went to Taiwan with the army, and served as the director-general of the Youth Writing Association in China, Taiwan Province Province, the editor-in-chief of the Young Lion Culture Company magazine and the editor-in-chief of the supplement of Taiwan Province United Daily News. This is also the "Genesis" of Taiwan Province Province.
In the early 1950s, 19-year-old Yaxian began to publish poetry, and 1965 stopped writing. Poetry writing career is only more than ten years, leaving less than 90 poems. In fact, several of his poems can be regarded as "different versions" and extensions of Abyss. But these few works, with their originality and high imagination, have had a far-reaching impact in the field of new poetry, which can be said to be an anomaly in the history of modern poetry in China.
"I'm here to find my roots today." The first thing Yaxian said when he entered the campus of Peking University and stood on the podium of Zhongkun International Poetry Award was: "I think Genesis can be used as an experience of Taiwan Province Province. We burned the fire of China's new poems from Peking University to Taiwan Province Province. "
Yaxian said: "My literary career grew up with Genesis. Love, Zhang Mo and I co-founded Genesis Poetry Society, which has been in business for more than 50 years and is still being published. He will be 60 years old next year. Bai Xianyong once described Genesis as a cat with nine lives. " Yaxian smiled and recalled that everyone was very enthusiastic during that time, and everyone didn't take the manuscript fee, so it was an "unpaid army." "Today's young people like racing cars. At that time, we were' soaring poems'. We write poems head-to-head and foot-to-foot in the dormitory every day. Many poems were written at that time. I once set a record of writing as many as six poems a day. "
Hong Zicheng, a professor in Peking University, commented that although Yaxian belonged to the Genesis Poetry School in Taiwan Province Province in the 1950s, he was not bound by a certain trend of thought or routine. Yaxian's poems present various styles. There are lyric, rough, ironic and simple ballads, strong homesickness, criticism of modern civilization and existential self-analysis. His writing style is natural and unique. Caring for the sufferings of the little people at the bottom, but not cheap sentimentality and pity. Focusing on real politics and daily life, but integrating into the dimension of time has increased the sense of heaviness and vicissitudes of history.
Zhang's early evaluation of Yaxian's creation is still valid today: Yaxian's poems are dramatic, ideological, local and global, with his interpretation of life and philosophy of death. Sweetness is his language, bitterness is his spirit, and he is both contradictory and harmonious. Through beautiful and unique images, he turned this poem into a gentle and powerful love song.
"A poet is a lifetime"
Over the past 30 years, Taiwan Province Province has been selected as one of the "Top Ten Poets" for three times, and Yaxian was elected every time. In an interview, Yaxian repeatedly said: "A poet is a lifetime", "A poet once, a poet once" and "Poetry is a kind of belief, just like a religious martyr, a poet is a martyr of beauty all his life".
Poetry in Yaxian is a part of his life, and it has melted into his blood. Or let's put it this way, no matter whether he wrote poems crazily in his early years or carefully now, he will always be a poet and lead a poetic life, just as he himself said: "Poetry is an addiction that is hard to give up, and poetry is a hobby and a disease. If you like poetry, it is not easy to throw it away. " He said that there are two kinds of poets, one is a person who writes poems, and the other is a person who has written poems. In this way, he is not arguing for his own poetry, but he has been consciously under the light of poetry.
Yaxian believes that poetry is divided into three layers. The first is the self-level, which describes the most self-feeling. At this time, the poet was still very young. The second level is self, expressing indirect feelings, which is very realistic and has a broad group spirit. At this time, the poet is nearly middle-aged, composing poems, that is, expressing his own feelings; Third, there is no self, that is, excluding me and surpassing human reality, which is a philosophical attitude in creation. At this time, the poet has reached the old age and entered the realm of metaphysics and Zen. The ego is the field of aesthetics, the ego is the field of culture, and the ego is the field of philosophy or metaphysics and religion.
He believes that the standard of a good poem is "deep thoughts, true feelings and new skills". He put forward that poetry creation "refining words is not as good as refining sentences;" Refined sentences are not as good as refined meanings; It is better to refine people than to refine them. " At the same time, he also believes that poetry is the display of the poet's personality charm, and it is only good to make poetry like people, like poetry, and like people.
"After middle age, my interest turned to poetics, and then to editing. But I have never betrayed the god of poetry one day, and my poems have always made me repent. " He said.
Editing is a great undertaking.
Yaxian always modestly calls himself "a failed writer and a successful editor". He was a literary editor for many years when he presided over the supplement of United Daily News. With his support, there is a long list of people who have made their mark and become famous in the literary world. He seriously replied to promising contributors. For a poet, his reply will be many pages longer than that manuscript.
When Xi Murong was not famous, her poems were often in a state where quips and sentences coexisted. Yaxian wrote back to her and patiently analyzed and explained which words were poems and which were failures. Xi Murong was very moved and later wrote to him: "You waste too much time. When you reject the manuscript in the future, just draw a red line under the wonderful sentence and a blue line under the unsuccessful sentence. " Yaxian did this, and Xi Murong was really smart, so he changed it according to the red and blue lines, and sometimes changed the one that drew the red line, and then sent it back. This is a good poem, which was published as a "couplet" and had a strong response from readers.
Yaxian will reply to any contribution, 20 to 30 times a day. "I don't need those old words, just understand and make what I want to say clear." When recruiting an editor, he must ask the candidate "What is the most important thing in editing". If the candidate answers "proofreading", he will definitely ask for it. "Why is proofreading so important? Although there was no computer in the past, all manuscripts were handwritten and typed, which was easy to make mistakes, but there were full-time proofreaders. There is a problem of editorial responsibility here, and there can be no mistakes, otherwise the publication of the work is also a disrespect for the author. "
"I am fascinated by editors. I take the meaning of editing very seriously. I don't like people saying that editing is a wedding dress. I think editing is a career and a great career. So I spent a lot of time editing. " Yaxian said.
"Judging from the large number of literary participants in China, the wide publication of Chinese and Sinology, and the enthusiastic exchange and agitation of Chinese in the world, China's literary world is definitely qualified to become the largest literary world in the world." Yaxian said that he has been encouraging young people all his life. He believes that China's literary world has a great chance to become the largest and most impressive literary world in the near future.