Reflections after reading "Rain Alley" by Dai Wangshu (2 articles)
Part 1
A good lyric poem should be the crystallization of artistic beauty. It will transcend the limitations of time and space and arouse people's aesthetic feelings.
However, for many years, "Rain Alley" and some other poems by Dai Wangshu have been regarded as idle moans of symbolism and modernism and excluded from the field of literary history; Like cultural relics, these works were excavated from the forgotten dust and the artistic brilliance in them was seen again.
Dai Wangshu’s rough and tortuous creative path of more than 20 years left us only more than 90 short lyric poems. "Rain Alley" is one of his early famous works.
"Rain Lane" was written around the summer of 1927. It was first published in Volume 19, No. 8, of "Novel Monthly" published in August 1928. Dai Wangshu's close friend Du Heng wrote in 1933:
When it comes to "Rain Lane", it is difficult for us to praise Mr. Ye Shengtao. Almost a year after "Rain Alley" was written, when Mr. Ye Shengtao was acting as editor of "Novel Monthly", Wang Shucai suddenly posted it. As soon as Mr. Shengtao saw this poem, he wrote a letter and praised him for opening a new era for the syllables of the new poem. ... Mr. Shengtao's powerful recommendation is why Wangshu got the title of "Yuxiang" poet, which he has been to this day. ("Wangshucao. Preface")
"Rain Alley" creates a lyrical artistic conception rich in strong symbolic colors. Here, the poet metaphorizes the dark and dull social reality at that time as a long, narrow and lonely "rain lane". There is no sound, no joy, no sunshine. The poet himself is such a lonely person wandering in the rain alley. In his solitude he cherished a hopeless hope. I hope that a beautiful ideal will appear in front of me. The "lilac-like" girl described by the poet is a symbol of this beautiful ideal. However, the poet knows that this beautiful ideal is difficult to realize. She was as full of sorrow and melancholy as herself, and it was fleeting, drifting past her like a dream. What remains is the poet himself still wandering in the dark reality, and the hope that floats away like an unattainable dream!
Some commentators said that in "Rain Alley" the poet used beautiful "imagination" to cover up the ugly "reality" and "self-liberation", and was "using some soap bubble-like gorgeous illusions to deceive." "Myself and my readers", apart from the harmonious and musical beauty in art, "it has no merit in content". (Fanny: "On Dai Wangshu's Poetry", "Literary Review" 1980, 4), these criticisms and judgments are too simple and harsh for "Rain Lane".
The summer of 1927 when "Rain Lane" was produced was the darkest era in Chinese history. The reactionaries carried out a bloody massacre against the revolutionaries, causing a white terror that enveloped the country. The young people who had enthusiastically responded to the revolution suddenly fell from the climax of the fire into the abyss of night. Some of them cannot find a revolutionary future. They are trapped in hesitation and confusion in pain, they are longing for the emergence of new hope in despair, and they are looking forward to a brilliant rainbow in the haze. "Rain Alley" is a reflection of this state of mind of some progressive young people. Dai Wangshu was only twenty-one or twelve years old when he wrote this poem. More than a year ago, he and his classmates Du Heng, Shi Zhecun, and Liu Naou were engaged in revolutionary literary and artistic activities, joined the Communist Youth League, and devoted themselves to the party's propaganda work with his passionate pen. In March 1927, he was arrested and detained by the reactionary authorities for promoting revolution. After the "April 12" coup, he lived in seclusion in Songjiang, Jiangsu Province, chewing on "the troubles of being Chinese in this era" in loneliness. ("Wangshucao. Preface") The poems such as "Rain Alley" he wrote at this time are naturally filled with emotions of hesitation, disappointment, sentimentality and pain. This hesitant and sentimental emotion cannot be generally said to be a purely personal lament, but a reflection of the darkness of reality and the disillusionment of ideals in the poet's heart. "Rain Lane" uses short lyrical chants to reproduce the typical voices deep in the hearts of these young people. Here we really cannot hear the description of real suffering and the cry of rebellion against darkness. This is a low confession, a confession of disappointment. However, from this confession and self-reflection, can’t we clearly see the pain and pursuit of some young people after their ideals are disillusioned? The pain of losing beautiful hope flows in the poem. Even young people at that time were not so easily "deceived." After reading "Rain Lane", people do not want to wander in the rain lane forever. People always hate this rainy alley and long to get out of this rainy alley and go to a broad and bright place without rain or sorrow.
An important artistic feature of "Rain Alley" is the use of symbolism to express emotion. Symbolism is an artistic genre that emerged in French poetry at the end of the 19th century. They rebel against the capitalist order with apocalyptic decadence. In terms of expression methods, it emphasizes the use of hints, metaphors and other means to express inner momentary feelings. This art genre was introduced to China during the ebb of the May Fourth Movement. Li Jinfa was the first poet to make extensive use of symbolism in poetry. Dai Wangshu's early creations were also obviously influenced by French Symbolism. An important feature of his creation is to pay attention to the ability of poetry to suggest metaphors, and to express emotions in symbolic images and artistic conceptions. "Rain Alley" embodies this artistic characteristic.
In the poem, the poet holding an oil-paper umbrella, the lonely and long rainy alley, and the girl with lilac-like sadness floating past like a dream are not specific portrayals of real life itself, but lyrical images full of symbolic meaning. We may not necessarily be able to say specifically what these images refer to, but we can appreciate the vague poetic meaning expressed by these images. The atmosphere of social reality, the lonely and wandering state of mind, and the unattainable hope of pursuing two goals, are both clear and hazy in the images described in "Rain Alley", both definite and erratic, displayed before the readers' eyes. Imagination creates symbols, and symbols expand imagination. The result of expressing emotions through symbolic methods makes the poet's emotional state of mind appear more subtle and subtle, leaving a vast world for readers to imagine and feel the lingering fragrance and aftertaste of the poem. Mr. Zhu Ziqing said: "Dai Wangshu also adopted the symbolism school. He translated the poems of this school. He also paid attention to neat syllables, but not sonorous but light and clear; he also illuminated a hazy atmosphere, but people can understand it. "He wants to capture the subtle and subtle place." ("Chinese New Literature Series. Collection of Poems. Introduction") "Rain Lane" is hazy but not obscure, low-key but not decadent, affectionate but not frivolous, and he has really captured it. Symbolist poetry is a great place for subtlety and subtlety.
Dai Wangshu’s great poetry creation has also been deeply influenced by the artistic nutrition of classical poetry. In "Rain Alley", the poet created a symbolic lyrical image of a lilac-like girl with sorrow and resentment. This was clearly inspired by some works in ancient poetry. Using lilac knots, or lilac buds, to symbolize people's sorrow is a traditional expression method in ancient Chinese poetry. For example, in Li Shangyin's poem "Gifts on behalf of others", there is a line: "The plantains do not show their lilac knots, but they all face the same sorrow in the spring breeze." Li Jing of the Southern Tang Dynasty even associated lilac knots with melancholy in the rain. His "Huanxi Sand":
Hand-rolled pearls with jade hooks, locking the heavy building with the regret of the previous spring. Who is the master of the flowers falling in the wind? Siyouyou!
The bluebird does not convey the message from the clouds, and the lilacs are empty and full of sorrow in the rain. Looking back at the green waves of San Chu and Mu, they connect to the sky.
In this poem, lilac knots in the rain are used as a symbol of people's sorrow. It is obvious that Dai Wangshu absorbed the artistic conception and method of describing sorrow from these poems and used them to form the theme of "Rain Lane" Artistic conception and imagination. This absorption and reference from poetry is very obvious. However, can we say that the artistic conception and image of "Rain Lane" are the expansion and "dilution" of the modern vernacular version of the famous line from the old Tang Dynasty poem "Lilacs are empty and sad in the rain"? I thought it couldn't be seen that way. When constructing the artistic conception and image of "Rain Lane", the poet not only sucked the juice of his predecessors, but also created his own creation.
Part 2
The figure in the long and narrow alley, the elegant figure of a girl holding an oil-paper umbrella in the drizzle, excludes all the scenery and monopolizes it. improve your vision. This figure carries the ultimate beauty of sadness, walking towards you from a distance, walking straight into your pupils and into your heart. The lilac with a trace of melancholy comes to you, penetrates into your heart and soul. From now on, you will never forget that rainy alley, the figure of the girl holding an oil-paper umbrella, and the faint lilacs. ——Dai Wangshu's thoughts after reading "Rain Alley"
Love is an empty city, and memory is the distance between two cities. Memories are a very beautiful thing. Memories should be packed in a crystal box and hidden in a corner of the soul. Let it transform into the most beautiful crystal diamond in the soul as time goes by. But don’t let it deteriorate and don’t open the box too often. Only by turning loss into beauty can we meet happiness in dreams.
The longing for the sea lasts forever
Finally it meets the sky on the horizon
If love goes far enough
It should also follow Happy meeting
Promises are often like butterflies
The beautiful ones fly around and then disappear
But I believe in the vow you gave me
Just like the spring that will definitely come