Xu Zhimo "Accidental"
I am a cloud in the sky,
Occasionally projected in the center of your wave——
You don't need to be surprised,
and there is no need to be happy -
It disappeared in an instant.
You and I meet on the sea of ??darkness,
You have yours, I have mine, direction;
You may as well remember,
It is best that you forget,
The light that shines upon each other during this encounter!
(Written in May 1926, first published in the 9th issue of "Morning Post Supplement Poetry" on May 27 of the same year, signed by Zhimo.
This is a collaboration between Xu Zhimo and Lu Xiaoman Writing the lyrics of the old blind man in the fifth act of the script "Bian Kungang")
Being able to visualize an extremely abstract time adverb like "accidental" and put it into a symbolic structure, full of interesting philosophy. , not only is it round and round, but also catchy and has an endless aftertaste, meaning beyond words - Xu Zhimo's "Accidental" poem, for me, it is not a good idea to use the words "a special liking". Pass.
In the history of poetry, a long poem with a thousand lines can be buried in the ruthless sedimentation of history as time goes by, but some exquisite short poems can shine through the ages. . This short poem of two paragraphs and ten lines should be regarded as a unique work in the gallery of modern poetry.
This little poem "Accidental" also has some unique "turning" significance in the process of Xu Zhimo's pursuit of poetic beauty. According to Xu Zhimo's student, the famous poet Kazhilin: "This poem is the most perfect in form among the author's poems." (Page 94 of "The Collected Poems of Xu Zhimo" edited by Kazhilin) ??New Moon Poets Chen Mengjia also believes: "A few poems such as "Accidental" and "Ding Dang-Fresh" opened the gap between his two periods. He erased his previous anger and used neat, soft and refreshing poems to write the subtle The secret of the soul" ("In Memory of Xu Zhimo"). Indeed, Xu Zhimo's skill and ingenuity can be seen in the rhythm of this poem. The whole poem has two stanzas, the upper and lower stanzas are symmetrical. The first, second, and fifth sentences of each stanza are composed of three musical steps. For example: "Occasionally projected in the center of your wave," "The light shells that exchanged during this intersection," the third and fourth sentences of each stanza are composed of two steps, such as: "You don't have to be surprised," "It's good that you remember/it's best that you forget." The arrangement and processing of the steps are obviously rigorous but also free and easy. Longer steps alternate with shorter steps, making it read slowly, calmly, euphemistically and catchyly. .
What I need to highlight here is that this poem is full of various "tension" structures that are difficult to detect. This "tension" structure is between "muscle" and "muscle". There are various aspects between "frame", between "image" and "image", and between "intention" and "intention". The unique "tension" structure should be said to be one of the secrets of this poem's artistic charm.
The so-called "tension" is a critical term advocated and practiced by British and American New Criticism. In layman's terms, it can be seen that the whole organism of poetry contains existing contradictory and contradictory dialectical relationships. A poem must be organic and holistic on the whole, but its interior is allowed and should be full of various contradictions and tensions. Poems full of "tension" can be profound, chewy and memorable. Because only this kind of poetry is not static, but "contains movement in stillness". For example, although a fully opened bow is stationary, it is full of energy and strength that can explode at any time.
Regarding this poem, first of all, there is a certain tension between the title of the poem and the text. "Accidental" is a completely abstract adverb of time. What you write under this title should be said to be free and arbitrary. However, under this abstract title, the author writes about two relatively real things. One is about the sky. The clouds are occasionally projected on the center of the waves in the water, and the second is that "you" and "I" (both symbolic images) meet on the sea. If we use "Me and You", "Encounter" and the like as the title, although it is not bad, the poetic taste will be far different. If we use "You and I" and "Encounter" as the title, which are quite practical words that anyone can summarize from the poem, the tension between abstraction and concreteness will naturally disappear.
Thirdly, there are more tension structures within the poetic text. "You/I" are a pair of "binary oppositions", or "occasionally projected in the center of the wave," or "meeting on the sea," are all passers-by passing by in the journey of life; "You don't have to be surprised. / There is no need to be happy” and “It’s good that you remember / It’s best that you forget,” both show sufficient “tension” with a “dual opposition” emotional attitude and a semantic “oxymoron”. Especially the poem "You have yours, I have mine, direction", I think it is not an exaggeration to recommend it as a classic poem praised by "New Criticism" as the most suitable for "tension" analysis. "You" and "I" meet by chance in the vast sea of ??people because they each have their own directions, and they shine together, but they pass each other and go their own directions.
Two completely different and contradictory intentions - "you have yours" and "I have mine" are precisely unified and contained in the same sentence, and are summed up in the same word - "direction".
As Xu Zhimo gives readers a strong impression of a "romantic poet", the symbolism of this poem - both overall symbolism and local image symbolism - may be particularly noteworthy. The overall symbolism of this poem is consistent with the tension structure between the "poem title" and the "text" we analyzed earlier. Under the title of "accidental", which can be transformed into many concrete images, images such as "cloud-water", "you-me", "night sea", "mutual light" and the relationship between images are included. The composition of relationships can be understood or structured differently due to the differences in readers' personal emotional experiences and the intensity of their experiences. This is exactly the wonderful use of "symbols" that "the names are small and the categories are large" ("Yixi Ci"), using less to metaphor more, using small to metaphor big, and using individual metaphors to metaphorically general. Or you may encounter setbacks in life, or your emotions may go wrong, or you may have regrets and pain, or you may smile helplessly and feel lost... In life, there are bound to be such "accidental" "encounters" and "intersections". And this "mutual light when they meet" will surely become an unforgettable memory that will last forever.
Look carefully. There must be one (⊙v⊙) huh?