Reflect with withered crop feathers;
Pollen is the time for your spouse to be a swallow.
Dance of weaving arrows,
In the flying light
Through clusters of crops. We like to listen.
The overlapping words of the wind, I like to hear.
The creaking sound in the field.
Trim leaves in the field
Thorn like bamboo chips.
At this moment, we-the reaper.
Waiting for the tassels to turn reddish brown,
Cast a long shadow at dusk,
In the smoke of firewood, the dry thatch will
Bind Fruitful stems
Resist the erosion of bacteria-we wait
Red and brown hope.
(translated by Zhou Yongqi)
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Soyinka is a versatile writer. His literary creation involves various genres and themes, and he has published more than 20 plays, novels and poems. His poetry creation is also remarkable. As early as the early 1950s, when he was studying at ibadan University, he had already published passionate poems in magazines. The poem Edna and Others from 65438 to 0967 attempts to express his complex feelings and lyrical reflections on some events under the impact of reality. Poems in Prison is a collection of poems written on toilet paper when he was imprisoned, which was later compiled and published, mainly expressing his experiences and feelings after losing his freedom and his desire for freedom and light. 1972, a number of poems were added on this basis, and were collected and published again under the name of "Shuttle in the crypt". The long poem Abibi God is a eulogy written to celebrate Mozambique's declaration of war on Rhodesia ruled by white people. The images in these poems are rich and philosophical, showing the author's sense of moral mission, and reflecting his superb poetic art and deep, subtle and cold overall style from an artistic point of view. His poetry creation is essentially a kind of "slave narrative", full of the rebellious spirit of colonial writers, and has obvious post-colonial color. His works are often a mixture of dual cultures, both from the western modern poetry tradition and from the social and cultural reality of African colonies. However, while carrying out cultural resistance, he also showed a strong pessimistic tendency.
African literary works mostly show natural landscapes with local characteristics and distinctive ethnic customs. The Season is a work originated from Africa. Its language is mild, fresh and simple, and its thoughts and feelings are relatively simple. Its content is also very close to the natural and real life in Africa. The works mainly depict the natural scenery in the local growing season, the residents' stable and peaceful living conditions, the excitement of expecting a bumper harvest and the beautiful vision for the future life.
At the beginning of the work, it is said that "reddish brown is mature, reddish brown/reflecting withered crop feathers", which shows a picture of a bumper harvest in front of readers; But the next sentence becomes "the time when pollen is a spouse", and instead describes the growing season, which is consistent in the following, so that the first two sentences constitute a set of parallel corresponding relationships. On the one hand, the first sentence "yes" plays a leading role in the following, starting with a sentence that embodies universal truth and has some internal connection with the theme, and then naturally transitioning to the topic of poetry, which is reflected in the transition from harvest (maturity) to growth (mating) in this work. On the other hand, we can easily find that "reddish brown" in the first sentence is mentioned twice at the back of the work, which seems to indicate that "harvest" is also an important part of the theme of the work, and harvest is the result of growth in content, which is also in line with people's behavioral motives and psychological expectations, so the first sentence itself and the image of "reddish brown" have irreplaceable significance and status. Then we entered the "mating season" (growth/pollination) of crops and began to describe the various scenery of this season. In the process of description, the author's ideas are jumping, which can be basically summarized as: pollen-swallows-crops-wind-fields-grains. The whole image chain naturally connects several unrelated things, from the symbol of this season-"pollen" to the conclusive theme of the whole article-"tassel", then points to "harvest", and finally turns to people's ideological and emotional world. "Pollen" basically failed after it became a symbol, and then "Swallow" appeared, which linked "crops" with their spatial whereabouts. The metaphor of "the dance of weaving arrows" was vivid, and "flying light" enhanced the dynamics of images. In fact, the meaning of "crop" partly coincides with the ultimate goal of this paragraph, but in contrast, the concept of "crop" is more abstract and general, and the instant impression left by the swallow seems to be just right, while the later "spike" is much more specific. The overlapping words of "... we like to hear the wind and listen to the creaking sound in the fields" lead to the appearance of "we" in the chain process, which suddenly increases the subjective judgment, but it seems to endow the chain with a richer level, without interrupting the reader's thinking or affecting the emotional advancement of the work. "We like listening to ........................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................. The destructive power of "stabbing people like bamboo chips" is the same as the above-mentioned "weaving arrow dance", which seems to be related to the author's radical personality. The second paragraph directly enters the life circle of human "harvester", and the two sentences across the line basically express a complete meaning, that is, harvest together when the ears of grain turn reddish brown. The projection of shadows, the weaving of garlands and the swimming of straw endow "Suixu" with some magical colors, and at the same time add texture to the language of the work itself, paving the way for its final summary "We are waiting/reddish-brown hope".
(Lu Qing)