Original text of the work:
"To the Oak Tree"
If I love you - I will never be like a climbing flower in the sky, showing off myself on your high branches; if I love you I love you - I will never imitate the infatuated bird, repeating a monotonous song for the green shade; nor be like a spring, bringing cool comfort all year round; nor be like a dangerous peak, increasing your height and setting off your majesty.
Even daylight. Even spring rain. No, these are not enough! I must be a kapok tree near you, standing with you as the image of a tree. The roots are clenched in the ground, and the leaves are touching in the clouds. Every time the wind passed by, we greeted each other, but no one understood our words.
You have your copper branches and iron trunks, like knives, swords, and halberds; I have my red flowers, like heavy sighs and heroic torches.
We share the cold wave, wind and thunder, and thunderbolt; we enjoy the mist, mist, and hauni. It seems like they are separated forever, but they are still dependent on each other for life. This is great love, and steadfastness is here: love - not only love your majestic body, but also love the position you insist on, the land under your feet.
Extended information:
1. The creative background of "To the Oak"
Shu Ting once talked about the creative background of the poem "To the Oak": "The actual "The poem was simple and ordinary," Shu Ting recalled. In 1975, Cai Qijiao, an old returned overseas Chinese poet from Fujian who had helped her a lot in her writing, came to Gulangyu Island as a guest. One night, when Shu Ting was walking with him, Cai Qijiao told her about the girls she had met in her life.
In the 1970s it was a bold thing to talk openly about the girls you liked. Cai Qijiao said that there are beautiful girls but no talent; talented girls who are not beautiful; girls who are beautiful and talented but also very fierce. He thinks it is difficult to find a perfect girl.
Shu Ting said that she was very angry after hearing this and felt that it was a male chauvinist idea and that men and women should be equal. So, that night, she wrote a poem "Oak" and handed it to Cai Qijiao later changed it to "To the Oak Tree" when it was published.
"Actually, oak trees can never grow together with kapok trees in the South. In this poem, they are used as male and female references." She added.
2. Introduction to the author:
Shu Ting (1952~), formerly known as Gong Peiyu, was born in Xiamen, Fujian. One of the representatives of the Misty Poetry School. His poems reveal rational thinking in a hazy atmosphere. He is good at using metaphors, symbols and other artistic techniques to express his unique and profound feelings. He is a product of the combination of romanticism and modernism.
The representative works of poetry include "To the Oak Tree", "Motherland, My Dear Motherland", "This Is Everything", etc. He has published poetry collections such as "Brig" and "Singing Iris".
3. Writing style:
Shu Ting is good at introspecting the rhythm of her own emotions, and especially shows the unique sensitivity of women in capturing complex and delicate emotional experiences.
Her poems are full of romanticism and idealism. Her love for the motherland, life, love, and land is both warm and peaceful, and full of passion. Her poems are good at using metaphors, symbols, associations and other artistic techniques to express inner feelings, revealing rational thinking in a hazy atmosphere. They are hazy but not obscure. They are the product of a combination of romanticism and modernism.
Shu Ting can also discover sharp and profound poetic philosophy in some conventional phenomena that are often ignored by people ("Goddess Peak", "Hui'an Women"), and writes this discovery with full of speculative power , and charming.
Baidu Encyclopedia—To Oak
Baidu Encyclopedia—Shu Ting