In Dead Water, Wen Yiduo draws lessons from the irony of modern western poetry and the artistic principle of "taking ugliness as beauty". In the middle three paragraphs of the poem, the imagination is enriched, all the ugly things in the stagnant water are painted in beautiful shapes, and the dirty, moldy, dim and silent stagnant water is satirized with bright colors and loud voices. Beauty and ugliness are intertwined and contrasted, and the artistic effect is refreshing.
Dead Water is a typical example of Wen Yiduo's experiments on his "three beauties" (music beauty, painting beauty and architecture beauty). This poem has strict meter. The whole poem consists of five sections, each with four lines. Each line consists of three "two-character (phonetic symbol) feet" and one "three-character (phonetic symbol) foot", with the same rhythm and the same number of words. Each bar is generally based on abcb rhyme, which is very neat from internal rhythm to external form. The poet is like "dancing in chains", but it is amazing that he dances so easily and harmoniously!
I'm coming, I shouted, blood and tears welled up in my eyes,
"This is not my China, no, no!"
I came because I heard you calling me;
Feng Gang whipped the time, lit the flame,
I came, I didn't know it was an empty joy.
What I met was a nightmare. Where are you?
It was a horror, a nightmare hanging on a cliff,
That's not you, that's not my love!
I questioned the sky and forced the wind to blow from all directions.
I asked, punching the red chest of the earth,
Always can't ask the news; I cry for you,
Spit out a heart-in my heart!
Discovery is one of the most important representative works of Wen Yiduo's patriotic poetry, which is found in the collection of poems "Dead Water". Judging from the content, Wen Yiduo is about to return to China. It is the crystallization of the poet's love and hate, which shows his disappointment and resentment at the broken motherland under the warlord's melee at that time after returning to China.
As we know, as early as the May 4th Movement, Wen Yiduo was a patriot with integrity, kindness and national pride. During his study in the United States, he was subjected to racial discrimination and humiliation, and his patriotic thoughts and feelings became stronger and stronger. He returned to China angrily in the early summer of 1925. However, as a loyal son of the motherland, when he came back with a passionate patriotic heart and an ambition to serve and contribute to the motherland, he showed not ecstasy and self-confidence, but a deep sorrow that tore his liver and cracked his lungs. What an amazing contrast! What are the psychological factors that produce this amazing contrast? Mr Cang Kejia's analysis is very good:
"A poet who loves the motherland, the more insulted he is overseas, the deeper his nostalgia and hope for the motherland. ..... but when the hope came true, he fell into a terrible abyss. His image of a beautiful motherland in America is shattered! A big pillar on which he supported himself collapsed! What he saw was just the opposite of what he hoped to see. What he got was not warmth, but darkness and broken desolation. He is miserable, he is sad, he is indignant, he sings, he cries ... ".
"In fact, when he was in America, didn't he know that his dear great motherland was shattered by warlords? Isn't he clear about the situation in the motherland where natural and man-made disasters occur? However, the mood at that time and place made our sincere poet beautify and sanctify his beloved motherland. The poet gets warmth and strength from the image he creates. When reality broke his dream, the feeling of disappointment and sadness turned into a touching poem-discovery. " (Wen Yiduo's discovery and a sentence)
It is not difficult to understand the connotation of this poem by understanding the complicated psychological change process of the poet after his reunion with his motherland after a long separation.
This poem has only twelve lines. Although short, the idea is extraordinary, novel and ingenious, especially "the beginning and end are unusual and fascinating" (Appreciation of He Qifang's Poetry) This is indeed the poet's ingenuity. According to customary thinking and traditional writing, the title of this poem should be: first, express the poet's deep nostalgia and ardent hope for the motherland in a foreign country, then express what the poet saw, heard and felt when he returned to his hometown, and finally pour out the disappointment, sadness and expectation for the motherland that rose from disappointment and sadness. Writing in this way, of course, has formed a strong contrast between reality and ideal, highlighting the poet's patriotic feelings, but it is too lacking in new ideas and appears unremarkable. Wen Yiduo is an innovative poet. He always tries to avoid the mediocrity and generalization of poetry conception and tries to give him an unexpected sense of surprise. Discovery is an outstanding representative. The poet didn't fall into convention. He broke away from convention and found a new way. From the beginning, he went straight to the point, tore liver crack lung, shouting:
"I'm coming, I cried, blood and tears bursting.
This is not my China, no, no! "
This cry of bursting blood and tears, such as "I don't know where it came from", gives people a sudden and grand feeling, which makes people seem to have seen the disappointed and confused face of the poet bursting blood and tears with their own eyes and heard his painful and desperate complaints. People not only have to ask, since the poet has returned to his dream motherland, why doesn't he believe that this is "my China", but also repeatedly says "No, no!" And then what? It turned out that when the poet heard the call of the motherland, he beat the time, rode the wind, held a torch, and took the trouble to come back all the way. But the motherland in front of us is devastated, and the reality is as dark, horrible, frightening and desperate as a nightmare hanging on a cliff. Where is "I"? Hearing the call, I am afraid that it will take too long, the way home is too long and the speed is too slow, and I want to fly. In the end, it turned out to be "an empty joy." How disappointed and sad! Here, the poet didn't describe the dark reality of warlord scuffle, untold sufferings, broken mountains and rivers and miserable people when he set foot on his homeland, but directly expressed his deep affection and suffocating disappointment with two sets of "I'm coming" parallelism sentences and several appropriate metaphors, thus making this poem more concise, generalized, larger in capacity, more expressive, more exciting and more thought-provoking. After experiencing confusion, disappointment, grief and anger, the poet shouted again: "That's not you, that's not my love!" " "
At this time, people may think that this is the poet's "discovery", but if the poet's "discovery" refers to the destruction of the motherland and the breaking of mountains and rivers, then the conception of this poem is not novel and unique, and the theme is not touching. Because "The Feeling of Breaking the Country and Losing the Family" was written by many patriots long before Wen Yiduo, and many of them were exquisite. The most wonderful thing about this poem should be the last four sentences:
I questioned the sky and forced the wind to blow from all directions.
I asked, punching the red chest of the earth,
I can't get any news. I cry for you,
Spit out a heart-in my heart!
Since what the poet saw after returning to China was not "my China" or "my love", where are the poet's "China" and the poet's "love", that is, the beautiful motherland as beautiful as flowers and jade in the poet's ideal? He tried hard to find the truth, forcing the wind, the ground and above, he looked for the green void, below, the yellow spring, but he still failed. In two places, he found the person he was looking for, and he always couldn't get any news. He cried and cried, struggling tenaciously in great grief, persistently searching, pursuing and even "painstakingly" in deep and extensive indignation. Ah! My China is in my heart. "Flower-like motherland" is treasured in the poet's heart. What a strong and profound patriotic enthusiasm this is! The poet did not sink because of disappointment, but rose from disappointment and resentment with persistent and loyal love for the motherland. The ending of In My Heart is rock-breaking, unexpected and reasonable. It not only reveals the suspense, points out that this is the real "discovery", but also highlights the poet's deep and eternal love for the motherland. Linked to the poet's loyal and upright life and the last drop of blood in his heart in pursuit of the motherland, this ending is even more impressive. At this point, the image of a great patriot jumped from the page, making people respect.