Notes on Ya Xian's Red Corn-Reading his own sadness in other people's poems

red corn

Ya Xian

The wind of Xuantong that year blew

the string of red corn

It hung

under the eaves, as if the whole north

the whole north's melancholy

hung there

just like some afternoon when playing truant

snow made Mr. Xue's ruler. Some of the dead have gone to Beijing and haven't come back yet

It's like asking my brother's gourd to hide in a cotton robe

It's a little bleak, a little warm

And the copper ring rolled over the post

Seeing grandma's buckwheat field from a distance

and cried

That's the kind of red corn

hanging. For a long time

under the eaves

the wind of Xuantong was blowing

you'll never know

the red corn like that

the posture it hangs there

and its color

neither does my daughter born in the south

nor does Valhallen

as if I were old now

.

December 19th, 1957

When the wind blew through the red corn in Xuantong that year, I must have been wearing a big-breasted thick cotton-padded jacket, and I walked barefoot through the bumpy path on the farm yard in the cool wind, timidly longing for warmth and softness, quiet and unobtrusive, but crying inside. It was so quiet that I didn't even know what I was crying about at that time.

Is it Ya Xian's poems that describe the melancholy, desolation and warmth of the countryside in western Henan? Or am I an old soul, and I passed by this bard in Nanyang County in my previous life? Staggered by, walking the road of their own destiny.

that string of red corn also hangs in my eyes, under the eaves in my eyes. Golden corn leaves are lined with red corn cobs, which are quiet and rich red in autumn. However, because of loneliness, long history, long absence from home and homelessness, red corn hangs in the eyes one after another, bringing people joy, but more melancholy.

I can see the corn, the eaves, the old house and me in front of it. I am wearing a pigtail and a gown. Melancholy is greater than joy because there are no adults, and I don't know where the adults are and where I can find lasting warmth. Ya Xian rolled the hoop over the post and cried when he saw grandma's buckwheat field. I was walking on a road that had no beginning and no end. I didn't know where I came from or where I was going. It rained and flooded my path, and the water poured into my shoes. I stood there and cried.

Red corn is hanging there, in Ya Xian, it is home; For me, it is a possible home, or a home that should be. So, am I more miserable than Ya Xian? I feel sorry for myself.

daughters born in the south don't understand, and neither does any girl named Harun. Every day my brother doesn't understand, and neither does Douglas. Will my sister understand a little? Her grown-up mother was still sobbing for a poem called "Red Corn" one day in 2 years.