Although there are many branches, there is only one root;
Of all the lies when I was young,
I shake off my branches and flowers in the sun;
Now I can wither and enter the truth.
Appreciation and background:
How many people love your beauty when you are young and happy, pretending or sincere/only one person loves your pilgrim's soul and the painful wrinkles on your aging face. -Ye Zhi "When You Are Old"
Things in the world are always like this. When You Are Old is a love poem given by Ye Zhi to Mott Gunn, the main leader of Irish autonomy movement. Eliot called it "a craftsman's work" and the world called it "a love swan song that has been touched for more than a century". Touched many people. But for Mulder Gunn, it was just Ye Zhi talking to himself and whispering. Many years later, Ye Zhi passed away, and his epitaph was, "Look at life coldly, look at death/knight, pass by." This is a sad song of a strong man. Fortunately, he didn't know that Maud Gunn finally refused to attend his funeral, and of course he couldn't hear Maud Gunn's evaluation of himself: "This man is too feminine."
But Ye Zhi must think that one day, Mort Gunn will fall in love with himself, and eventually, they will get married and be together. Just like that year, he fell in love with her, so simple, but that moment, like a glimpse, kept him waiting for nearly a lifetime. At that moment, "she stood at the window with a lot of apple blossoms beside her;" She is dazzling, as if she were a petal full of sunshine. He was in awe of this "extraordinary beauty" in her. He said, "I never expected to see such extraordinary beauty in a living woman. This kind of beauty belongs to famous paintings, poems and a legendary era in the past. "This day is1889 65438+1October 30th. But he doesn't know that this day is also doomed to his life's love and sorrow?
There is a kind of love in the world that makes you despair, but makes you look forward to it. You can't escape just because you don't want to leave. This kind of love is intertwined with your life. There is no right or wrong, and there is no right or wrong. The lion's heart that the poet Ye Zhi might have was captured in an instant, and the illusion he showed inspired Ye Zhi's endless desire for creation. We seldom see a poet like Ye Zhi, whose poetic life is so long until the end of his life. He is warm and intelligent, disillusioned and calm, which is beyond reproach. He was supported by an unusual force. This is related to the complex feelings between him and Mao Tegang, which are unreachable, close and distant, painful and joyful. It continues the creativity of the poet, but also activates the passion in the poet's soul. This made the poet emotionally miserable all his life, but it also made his poetic art successful. You can't deny that this is also a kind of fairness.
19 17, Ye Zhi, 52, married an English woman, George Hedris, and got married and had children. This was after her dead husband, Mort Gunn, rejected Ye Zhi's proposal again. That year, Ye Zhi made a final struggle. He proposed to Isabella, the daughter of Mulder Gunn. Even if you can't be husband and wife, it's good to be a mother-in-law After this absurd and extremely sour courtship was flatly rejected without any suspense, Ye Zhi finally stopped this hopeless idea. He is like a boat that has been tired all his life, exhausted. "You used to have a dazzling face. I tried to love you/everything seemed happy, but we all changed/became as tired as the empty moon. " (Adam's curse)
But in fact, Ye Zhi still can't forget Maud Gunn. In the last few months of his life, he wrote to Mulder Gunn: "Dear Mulder, I'd like to invite you and your friends to my house for tea. A car will pick you up at 4: 30, 4: 00 or later on Friday afternoon. I've always wanted to see you. "
Perhaps, at this time, Mao Tegang is just an illusion in Ye Zhi's mind. She is old and faded. She is too stingy to let him love the painful wrinkles on her aging face. Her body is no longer fragrant, and there is no apple flower to reflect the sunlight, but the poet still calls her gently. I think of his poem "Truth goes by with time", which says, "Shake off my branches and flowers in the sun, and now I can wither and enter the truth". In fact, he never withered, because Ye Zhi never really shook off branches and flowers.