I love this land.
Ai Qing
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 ...
Then I died,
Even feathers rot in the ground.
Why do I often cry?
Because I love this land deeply. ...
1938 1 1 month17th.
English translation:
What if I were a bird?
Should I sing in a hoarse voice?
Land hit by the storm?
This river is always full of our anger?
The wind that blows fiercely forever?
The tenderest dawn from the forest ...
I died after that?
Feathers rot in the soil.
Why are tears always in my eyes?
That's because I love this land very much. ...
Brief introduction of the author
Ai Qing (19 10 ~ 1996) is a contemporary poet. Formerly known as Jiang Haicheng, his pen names are Ejina, Keye and Lin Bi. Jinhua, Zhejiang I was raised by a poor peasant woman until I came home at the age of five. 65438-0928 entered the painting department of Hangzhou National West Lake Art College. The following year, I went to France to work and study. /kloc-returned to China at the beginning of 0/932, joined the China Left-wing Artists Union in Shanghai, engaged in revolutionary literary and artistic activities, was arrested soon, and wrote many poems in prison, among which Dayan River-My Nanny caused a sensation and became famous at one fell swoop. 1935 was released from prison, and the first book of poetry, Dayan River, was published the following year, which showed the poet's deep feelings of loving the motherland, with a strong earthy atmosphere, a heavy poetic style and a melancholy and sentimental mood.
short review
This poem has Ai Qing's unique melancholy, and it is this melancholy that produces special beauty. Ai Qing's melancholy stems from the suffering of the nation. There is a profound sense of hardship, a broad historical mind and a strong patriotic feeling here! Belinsky said: No poet can be great because of himself and relying on himself. He doesn't depend on his own pain or happiness. Any great poet is great because his pain and happiness are deeply rooted in the soil of society and history.
Ai Qing's poems always show us that deep and strong love for the country and the nation, as well as broad mind and fiery heart, are the foundation of poetry.
Appreciation 1 (Sun Guangxuan)
I Love This Land was written in the early days of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. The poem begins with "if", which is abrupt and novel and can't help but make people think. The "bird" in the poem is a general term, and it is a * * * name. Different from the cuckoo and partridge repeatedly sung by poets in past dynasties, it immediately has a natural and special charm and implication, but the poet has pursued new art without any support. What's more, the "hoarse throat" in the poem is quite different from the oriole, the weeping cuckoo and the soaring egret in the classical poetry. It is purely caused by the tragic atmosphere of the times in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, and it is also the affectionate expression of the special temperament and personality of this "sad poet" (the poet calls himself).
As a lyric art, poetry works need to constantly strengthen their feelings in order to strike a chord with readers for a long time. People are not birds and beasts, it goes without saying that this poem begins with "if", which is the first layer of reinforcement. Who doesn't know that the birds are clear and crisp? This poem is described as "hoarse", which is the second layer of reinforcement. It is not enough to have these two layers of reinforcement, so the objects of singing have appeared in the poem one after another: land, river, wind and dawn. It is particularly noteworthy that when describing these images, the poet reached an extremely poor and profound state, which fully reflected the artistic characteristics of this freestyle poet. As we know, the word "de" is mostly avoided or used less when writing poems. Needless to say, those folk songs are the creation of free poems. Many people are afraid that too many words "de" will slow down poetry. Ai Qing, on the other hand, dares to express his lingering feelings with a series of long sentences composed of the word "de", and likes to add a lot of adjectives and modifiers in front of the objects he describes to express the spirit of the objects and form a special sense of three-dimensional and sculpture, which is an important feature that distinguishes Ai Qing's liberal poetry creation from other liberal poets (such as Field). I love this land, and it is no exception. It is not difficult to see the mystery by looking at many modifiers such as "pathos", "ferocity" and "gentleness" specially added by the poet before the head words such as "land", "river", "wind" and "dawn".
These long sentences describing landscapes such as land and rivers mentioned above can be said to be the third layer of reinforcement. Just as the reader was impressed by the poet's constant singing-tenacious vitality, I didn't expect this poem to suddenly take a big turn. After the dash, it highlighted "I am dead" and made the body fertile. Thus, before and after death, there was a strong contrast, and in this strong contrast and contrast, the "bird" was born, sang and buried in Sri Lanka, and read here that death separated us!
There is no doubt that the strongest wind will weaken behind, and the hardest arrow will finally fall. When a poet writes a poem, it can be said that while strengthening his feelings, he is also setting himself a difficult problem: can he catch up later, or will it become unsustainable and finish his words? Fortunately, "I Love This Land" didn't go the same way. After crossing a line and making necessary pauses and pauses, I began to change my angle, which was endowed by comparison, and changed from poor description to simple and vigorous direct expression. Just like a clever singer, he fully understood the meaning of the last rest of the score. He took enough breath, accumulated enough momentum, and finally sang the highest note.
Needless to say, in the era of national disaster and the collapse of mountains and rivers, the poet's singing of "land" has a particularly touching power, and the poet's constantly turning and strengthening lyric way is of course consistent with that bumpy and bumpy era.
(Selected from the Dictionary of Appreciation of New Poetry, Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House, 199 1 edition)
From: People's Education Publishing House
Appreciation 2:
Ai Qing is a singer of the land, and "land" is one of the two most common images in his poems (the other is "the sun"). "Land" symbolizes the troubled motherland that gave birth to him and raised him. Love for "land" is an inexhaustible melody in Ai Qing's works.
I love this land, which was written in1938165438+10. It was at the head of the national disaster and the vicissitudes of the motherland were once again trampled by the Japanese invaders. As a poet, Ai Qing firmly integrated into the torrent of national liberation struggle and became the "trumpeter" of the times. He said that he "wrote poetry as a singer who struggled for the liberation of the tragic race and got rid of the shackles."
If I were a bird, the whole poem begins with such an unexpected assumption, and readers can't help asking, what is the connection between the image of "bird" and the "land" that the author wants to praise?
The author explained this.
I should also sing with a hoarse voice. At the critical moment when the fire is raging and the national luck is at the head, a seemingly insignificant bird has to fight hard and make an unyielding voice with its own voice. This reminds people that "every man is responsible for the rise and fall of the world." "hoarse throat", let us see that this is a bird that has suffered a lot, and its singing is made with its life.
The following four lines describe four objects that birds sing: land, river, wind and dawn, and the core is "land". It is worth noting that the author added long modifiers in front of these four objects.
This Land Attacked by Storm is a portrayal of this land being bullied by the Japanese aggressors.
"The river that always surges with our grief and indignation", the river on the land, like the grief and indignation that has been smoldering in people's hearts for a long time, surges.
"The wind of anger is endless", the wind blowing across the earth, symbolizes the people's anger at the atrocities of the invaders.
"The incomparably gentle dawn from the forest" indicates that the dawn of independence and freedom for which people struggle and devote themselves will surely come to this land.
"Then I died/even my feathers rotted in the ground." When the bird was alive, it tried its best to sing for this land. After death, it throws its whole body into the embrace of the land, and even its feathers are integrated with the land.
In the second paragraph of the poem, the author turns from a dynamic description of the singer to a close-up of "I". This is done by asking questions. A static close-up of "Why do I often have tears in my eyes" and "Tears in my eyes" shows the grief and pain that has been lingering in my heart for a long time. "Because I love this land deeply", witnessing the reality that mountains and rivers are broken and people are wiped by charcoal, the deeper my love for my motherland, the stronger my pain in my heart.
The last two sentences are the essence of the whole poem, and they are the confession of all patriotic intellectuals' sincere love for the motherland in that miserable era. This kind of love will never die, not only from the poet's heart, but also from the patriotic feelings of the whole nation. Ai Qing used these two poems to express the voice of the Chinese people in that era.
Problem research
1. "If I were a bird,/I would also sing with a hoarse throat." As the beginning of I Love This Land, what kind of tone did these two lines set for the whole poem?
At the beginning of the poem, the poet assumes that "I" is the image of a bird, and this "bird" is a bird with a hoarse throat, which makes the reader immediately infected by the poet's sense of hardship. This sense of hardship comes from a broad and deep love for the troubled motherland. In this tone, the poem further describes the objects that birds sing: land, river, wind and dawn. Judging from the modifiers in front of the four singing objects, they are all images of long-term suffering from wind and rain, grief and indignation, and struggling hard, which is in line with the spirit of the birds dedicated to the land below and strengthens the theme of "loving the land" and "loving the motherland" that the poet wants to express.
2. What is the relationship between the second part of I Love this Land and the first part? If the second verse is removed, how will the expression of the theme of the poem be affected?
If the first section is a lyrical description of the theme of "loving the land (motherland)", then the short and pithy two lines in the second section can be regarded as a highly concise summary of the theme. Without the second verse, poetry cannot be refined and strengthened.