Ye Saining, an outstanding Russian poet who died young, claimed to be the "last country poet". His love for Russian countryside was so deep and persistent that it even became a "country complex". Ye Saining was born in an ordinary peasant family, and spent his whole childhood in the countryside, so he has deep feelings for the countryside and farmers. Most of his poems are filled with simple local flavor, expressing his incomparable love for nature and land in his hometown. Before the October Revolution, he devoted himself enthusiastically to the revolution. After the success of the revolution, Russia began a large-scale national construction movement. During this period, Russian villages were hit to some extent. At this time, Ye Saining began to fall into the contradiction of loving the motherland and the countryside. This contradictory emotion was expressed as a theme in many later poems until the poet died. Why the moonlight is so dim is one of the most representative songs.
Although Ye Saining's poems are sometimes full of emotion, the poetic images he uses are traceable, which is one of the basic elements of "Ye Saining style". The first emotional image in "Why is the moonlight so dim" is the moonlight: "Why is the moonlight so dim/reflecting the gardens and walls of horasan?" In the whole poem, "moonlight" exists as a symbol of emotional tone, and "moonlight" outlines the overall tone of the whole poem. Facing the destruction brought by urbanization, the atmosphere and scenes in the countryside gradually turned into memories. This memory, which is constantly being mentioned because of reality, makes Ye Saining very sad, but he can't be angry, because Russia will always be his motherland, and personal anger and protest are so weak that people have no chance to be helpless in the face of a powerful regime. When the beloved rural world was destroyed, the poet experienced the conflict between the powerful motherland and the pastoral ideal, and the conflict between reality and personal will. The tension caused by these contradictions makes it difficult for people to find a decisive and clear angle to face the problem. Moreover, Ye Saining himself is a poet with extremely rich inner world, so sadness and helplessness have become the only ending. What can express this feeling better than the gorgeous and cold moonlight?
When the main emotional clues are vaguely expressed at the beginning, different emotional images are used in each subsequent paragraph. The primary function of these images is to provide a narrative basis for the emotional expression of poetry. Although the main content and purpose of poetry is to convey feelings, feelings are not passive water, trees without roots, and any kind of feelings have factual basis. Ye Saining's feelings at this time are caused by the fact that the countryside is in opposition to urbanization and industrialization, and the fact that the countryside is declining in this opposition. Perhaps such a foundation can be completely expressed in one or two logical narrative sentences, and there is no need to use so many images to symbolize and refer to it, but this is the characteristic of poetry itself and needs a narrative foundation, but not for this fact, but for the need to express strong feelings. This poetic essence is quite obvious in Ye Saining's poems, so his works always resonate, but they are not obscure. "I once asked this question to the silent cypress,/but all the cypresses said nothing and held their heads high proudly." Why should I ask Cypress such a question? In Ye Saining's poems, cypress and birch are usually images representing rural and pastoral feelings. The two short words "silence" and "arrogance" fully show the conflict faced by the countryside and its situation, which is the first paragraph of the narrative clue. "Rose scattered petals on the ground,/Rose whispered to me with petals:/'Your Sagna fell in love with someone else,/Sagna kissed another couple." "The falling rose symbolizes the decline of the pastoral world and the changes in Russia." Sagna "is the protagonist in Ye Saining's last poem Sagna Sagna, My Girl, which is the poet's nickname for the Russian motherland. Used here, it is obvious that the poet is disappointed with the changes in the motherland, because the girl beloved by the hero has kissed someone else. The conflict not only brought the poet's personal disappointment, but also brought the decline of Russian vitality: "This Russian didn't find that …/The soul needs singing, and singing needs the body of life", "This is why the moonlight shines so dim,/This is why the moonlight is so pale because of sadness". The inner vitality of Russia needs songs-pastoral songs from rural areas, which is the means and result of harmonious coexistence between man and nature. But obviously, the destruction brought by industrialization makes it difficult for people to find such a melody in the reinforced concrete forest. For this reason, Ye Saining believes that the Russian "body of life" is dying with the decline of the countryside. Without pastoral, how can there be pastoral? Faced with this reality, what should we do, accept, flee or resist? Ye Saining can't escape because he loves his motherland, and can't resist because of his limited personal ability. He can only feel sad in helplessness and nostalgia. "But the night when lilacs are fragrant is always infinitely beautiful."
For poetry, emotional images are bones and muscles, and they are the carrier of all objects of expression. If a poem just piles up countless adjectives without specifying an image, it may be difficult to understand and has no universal aesthetic value. In this poem by Ye Saining, we can see that the basic function of image is firstly to construct the realistic source of emotion, which belongs to a narrative function; Secondly, the specific source and emotion also limit the choice of images, so we can't choose them at will. When the images of birch, cypress, rose and Yuan Ye in Ye Saining are combined, we can see their pastoral temperament. These images convey the poet's feelings to the greatest extent.
(Dong Shuwen)