The rain fell gently over the city.
-aler Rambo.
Tears fell on my heart.
Like rain falling over the city.
Ah, what kind of sadness?
A thorn in my heart?
Ah, the rain falls on the ground and on the roof
Such a soft voice!
My inner sadness,
Ah, this singing rain!
Tears shed, for no reason,
Fall into this sick heart.
What? Nobody turned their back on me?
There is no reason for this sadness.
This is indeed the greatest sorrow:
I don't know why,
No hate, no love,
My heart has so much sadness.
(Luo Luo translation)
This poem is included in Wei Erlun's fourth collection of poems, Silent Heart. At that time, he was experiencing the most painful ordeal in his life: he lost his job after the bloodshed in May because he joined the Paris Commune; The entanglement with Rambo led to the divorce of his wife Mathilde, who also became a prisoner because of the shooting incident. When he wrote Silent Heart, he was still in prison. No publisher in Paris is willing to accept this collection of poems. Finally, his friend paid for the printing. The poet has lost and continues to lose everything: career, family, wife and children, which makes his poems shrouded in a cold air that cannot be sent away.
However, although the tone of these poems is so sad and mournful, they are successful in artistic treatment. At this time, he has completely got rid of the influence of Barnabas School and become a mature symbolic poet. People will never confuse him with any French lyric poet before him. Silent Heart, a collection of poems, represents that his poetry creation has entered a new peak.
As a symbolist poet, Wei Erlun accepted objects and images selectively. He always chooses those that combine emotions and can impress readers to the greatest extent. This is the image of "rain" in this poem. The poet put the rain of nature and people's tears together at the same time, which made the inner world contrast with the outer world and produced a strong effect. This technique of connecting the inside and the outside is commonly used by symbolist poets. When "rain" is combined with melancholy mood, it will emit a special effect, making people realize the influence of climate on people, which is symbolic in itself. Because this image often appears in the history of poetry, readers will have rich associations. Moreover, this image can also lead to various related situations outside this poem.
This technique is also common in China's poems. The most famous ancient poem is Tang Huang Ming's lyrics in Bai Renfu's Wu Tongyu: "The more it rains, the more tears there are. The rain was wet and cold, and tears stained their robes. They refused to go around. * * * The phoenix tree drops straight into the morning. " Dai Wangshu's "Tears Flowing Out" and other modern poems are similar. Wei Erlun's difference is that the rain in his works has not changed because of his mood, but it is still a "gentle noise", which is in sharp contrast with the "tears" coming from my heart like thorns. The material state is leisure, and people who worry about themselves are also worried. The poet wrote down the leisurely material state and compared it with his own mood, which played a comparative role and further strengthened the sadness of the soul.
(Liu Yang)