Among the contemporary poets in China, Majia not only debuted early, but also became famous early. I remember reading many of his poems in college. Because I was young and impetuous at that time and lacked a serious reading attitude, I didn't remember many specific poems, but the book Song of First Love was published in the golden age of poetry, which left a deep impression on me.
In the summer of 2007, when I went to People's Literature Publishing House to collect my sample book of Selected Poems, my friends in the editorial department gave me a thick book of Selected Poems of Jidemaga by the way. In Changhewan Apartment in Xizhimen, Beijing, because I haven't had a chance to read Ma Jia's poetry collection systematically for a long time, with a long-lost expectation and imagination, I seem to have devoured that weighty poetry collection alive. I remember writing in my reading diary that day: "Gidemaga is basically a poet who keeps rising with the deepening of his life experience-his poetic skills also improve with his age." This Selected Poems of Giddymaga changed and deepened my overall impression of Maga's poems, which not only made me realize the value of Maga's poems again, but also made me happy that he could write so many high-quality poems after he was busy in officialdom. China's modern poetry research circles should also re-evaluate and re-position Majia ... "In the spring of 20 10, I just returned to Beijing and read a group of poems by Majia in the newly published Annual Selection of Great Poetry, which was even more amazing.
I found an interesting phenomenon when I really started to translate modern Japanese poetry. In Japan, I can find a few poets who have always maintained a good writing state and are vigorous in writing. In other words, poetry writing is hardly influenced by their age. The older you get, the younger you are and the more sophisticated you are. Shuntaro Tanikawa and Baishijia Shouzi are two typical examples. But in China, I can't find such a poet. When you get old, you are all exhausted by Jiang Lang (of course, it is another matter to be like Yaxian, a poet in Taiwan Province). I often question this phenomenon: Why can't China poets maintain good creativity for a long time? Is it related to our overall human environment? Of course, this is a factor worthy of consideration, but I think it is more related to the poet's own quality and academic support: the innate literary sentiment is weak and the acquired cultural accumulation is insufficient, impetuous and distracting thoughts are full of hearts, utilitarian writing and intrigue for a little thing, the mutual praise of kung fu outside poetry and narrow circle consciousness, and the superficial writing attitude of being complacent after writing a few poems that you think are good. These factors should be. This is probably the reason why China has not produced a heavyweight poet who has influenced the world so far.
It was also an evening in the spring of 20 10. After attending a dinner in the old story bar, Ma Jia and I had a long talk alone in the glass room there. We almost forgot the coming and deepening of the night, immersed in it, calm and unforgettable, excited. I clearly remember that when I returned to my apartment, it was already past three in the morning. That long talk, far from the scene of China's modern poetry, was deeply influenced and benefited a lot. Our topic has always revolved around modern Chinese and foreign poets and poems, and sometimes even around the specific works of a poet. To my surprise, Majia knows the development pattern of modern poetry in the world like the back of his hand. For example, South America, Eastern Europe, and even the marginal countries and regions of Arabia and Asia, he can name a large number of foreign poets and even some specific works of poets. In recent years, when I was in Japan, a great translation country, I felt that I had the advantage of getting the moon first, or I read a lot of foreign modern and contemporary poems translated into Japanese, but compared with the literary materials mastered by Majia, I still looked a little ignorant. Ma Jia's talk made me see his broad literary vision, which is consistent with the openness I felt when I read his poems, and also complements the broadness and richness of his poetic spirit.
In the early winter of 20 10, I presided over the column "China Literary Figures" in Japanese magazine Hotpot for seven years, and published nearly 20 representative works of waistcoats. As it is a magazine published in China, it is necessary to make a brief introduction here: Hotpot is a comprehensive literary magazine that studies Japanese literature in Japan. It was founded in 199 1 by sinologist and translator Professor Tanigawa Yi, and changed from a quarterly magazine to a bimonthly magazine, aiming at introducing Japanese literature, movies, drama and art. Since its establishment, it has attracted the attention of Japanese sinologists and literary circles. In the words of China writer * * *, Gao Xingjian and Su Tong's famous sinologist Professor Iizuka Rong, Hotpot has not only successfully transplanted the best literature from China to Japan, but also is the only magazine in Japan that introduces China's contemporary literature in the most systematic and comprehensive way, and is an important window for Japanese sinologists and literary circles to understand China's literature. It is understood that in Japan, there is almost an important Japanese scholar who studies China literature. The 62nd issue published in July, 2004 set up the column of "China Literary Figures", which was the first time in Japanese literary magazines. Every issue of Hotpot magazine organizes important literary translators and professors and scholars majoring in China literature in Japanese universities to introduce excellent translations of China's literary works to Japanese readers, so as to arouse the real attention of Japanese literary circles, critics and ordinary readers to China's modern and contemporary literature. Choosing and translating writers' works with a serious and prudent attitude, regardless of their status, fame and genre, and pursuing "masterpiece doctrine" will make the literary exchange between Japan and China go deep into different levels, not just the simple level of translation and introduction. This practice is intended to change the vain, superficial, formalistic or speculative communication in the past, so that Japanese literary circles can truly recognize the essence of China literature. In each issue of this column, three to five short stories 1 articles by China active novelists, five to 1 5 poems by 1 modern poets and about 1 10,000-word comments by1critics are selected and translated, and at the same time, their color photos and detailed creative resumes are distributed.
This group of poems by Gidemaga was translated into Japanese by sinologist and poet Takeuchi. After the magazine was published, I soon saw someone talking about the Japanese works of vest on his blog or magazine. This is undoubtedly a great relief for me as an editor. Of course, Ma Jia, a China poet translated and introduced in this column, is not the first person to enter the sight of Japanese critics and readers. Among the nearly 20 China contemporary poets translated and introduced, the works of Kosuke Kitajima, Met, Han Niu, Nishikawa, Luye and Ouyang He Jiang have aroused different degrees of repercussions in Japanese literary circles. Some of his works have also been included in a worldwide collection of poems published in Japan.
What impressed me most when reading Ma Jia's poems was the fluency of his poems. There are many conceited poets in China, and there are often a few witticisms in a poem. However, due to the lack of overall artistic combing and grasping, or the inability to make a poem from beginning to end, both internal and external, completely fluent in language and meaning, in fact, there are sentences without sentences, which makes a poem unable to complete the highest artistic realm, and ultimately will only lead to a "stillbirth" of a poem. I have read many Japanese (including foreign poets translated into Japan) very difficult surrealist and avant-garde works. The inner "aura" of their poems is very smooth. Even if you sometimes can't fully understand them, the overall fluency of a poem will give you a strong sense of reading. Fluency is one of my criteria for evaluating a poet these years. Of course, the fluency mentioned here is not contradictory to the "resistance and rejection" advocated by the current poetry circle. A poem with a sense of fluency can also have "resistance and rejection" However, I think it is very important to strike a balance between "fluency" and "resistance" in a poem with limited words. For readers, both may be necessary, but for more general readers, "fluency" seems to be more important. In a poem, it may be necessary to resist rejection, but many of them are not caused by the natural space of the poem, but by the author's lack of thinking and talent, and even by affectation. Just like cerebral thrombosis, such people fail, which is not what poetry needs. Even if it is a rejection, it should be a rejection in words, and the life that readers feel should be smooth. I don't know if the fluency of Majia's poems has anything to do with his Yi origin, but I think it will definitely have something to do with it. Speaking of which, it suddenly occurred to me that he once improvised a Yi folk song at the dinner table. Although he can't understand this folk song, whenever and wherever he recalls it, it seems to echo in his ears. Fresh, beautiful, lyrical, beautiful and profound ... Think about it, this is also the overall feature of Majia's poetry text. As for fluency, in a sense, it is not only directly related to a poet's innate temperament, but also related to the poet's efforts the day after tomorrow, which is a problem I will think about in the future.
As a minority poet whose first mother tongue is Yi, Ma Jia's Chinese poetry writing is more expensive than that of a poet whose mother tongue is Chinese since childhood. Because in the cultural reality with Chinese as the center and power, he has to go through a process of "self-identification", which is similar to my writing in Japanese in recent years. I read a lot of strange rhetoric from many poems of vest, which brought me a lot of imagination and writing about different cultures. "Being different" is an advantage of Majia, that is to say, Majia is a poet who knows how to express "being different" with a clear mind. With the deepening of globalization of culture, economy and information, "difference" will become more and more important and noticeable. Difference is not only the expression of "difference and difference", but also the unity of contradictions. According to Hegel's dialectics, it is necessary to reveal and express "the internal relationship between difference and identity, and there are similarities in difference and differences in similarity". In China, where the power distance is relatively large, it is not a simple matter how to express cultural differences (Hofstadter).
Among many similar poetic expressions and writing styles in China, vest has formed its own unique voice and expression. Modernity and lyricism are perfectly combined in his poems. Every time I finish reading the work of vest, I can't help but think of the heart-to-heart conversation with him. That long talk, in a sense, became a key for me to interpret Majia's poems. From then on, I finally matched the poetic spirit of Majia with his personality charm, that is to say, the poetic style of Majia can be equated with his personality. I always stubbornly believe that it is difficult to write great poems without great personality spirit. Ma Jia is also a poet with a sense of hometown. His hometown is not limited to the Yi tribe in Daliangshan, Sichuan where he was born and raised. Judging from my interpretation of his poems, I think vest's hometown feelings are the earth in a broad sense. This may be one of the reasons for the magnificent world outlook in his poems. Another point I have to mention is the spirituality of Majia's poems. In this regard, he said in an interview with the media: "In the commercial material age, people's overall spiritual life is marginalized, and the loss of poetry subjectivity will inevitably lead to the lack of poetry belief. However, poetry is one of the oldest art forms of mankind. Without it, human spiritual life would be incomplete. "
Finally, I quote the last paragraph of a comment I just published in Taiwan Province United Literature magazine to end my criticism of Maga's poetry:
These years may be related to my writing in Japanese, not only poems, but also novels and reviews. After reading it, I will re-examine and evaluate these words in two languages-Chinese and Japanese. That is, whether their writings have the consciousness of "world literature" and a multicultural international vision, whether they have a profound insight into human nature and human living conditions, whether they have superb artistic completion and literary expression, and the universal spiritual value of literature. These two languages will help me find a reasonable judgment. In short, you must be able to conquer readers in China and Japan. This is also one of my methods to evaluate and judge the merits of modern Chinese and Japanese poetry in recent years.