This little poem, with only two lines, shocked the whole poetry world after the publication of the third issue of Stars in 1980. No matter who has a positive or negative evaluation of misty poetry, it is unanimous praise.
It is brand-new in aesthetic principle. It avoids the direct expression of emotion and abandons the real narration of the scene. It does not deliberately construct a complete artistic conception, but only highlights a pair of unusual "black eyes" (a symbol of a generation's awakening) on a thick black background with images and metaphors. At present, it seems that a beam of white light can be seen from the gap of the dark clouds. The whole poem is like a three-dimensional print.
"Night" and "light" form a sharp contrast between dark and bright colors, and "black eyes" are distorted images, permeated with strong emotional colors. This artistic expression has aroused readers' imagination, so the suffocating times appear on the screen of imagination, distorting the younger generation who grew up in absurd reality, and the tenacious spirit of seeking broke out from the potential buried in their hearts. This is a statue of a whole generation.
"Night-Eye-Light" A simple image group constitutes an open space-time-a unique social scene and human psychological structure at a historical turning point. It is a unique law of poetry to express infinity in finiteness and profundity in simplicity. The pioneers of the new poetry tide are pursuing the return of human nature and the return of poetry itself.
This little poem embodies a style of modern beauty. It breaks the traditional harmonious composition, creates a shocking artistic effect with a disharmonious image combination, and forces people to reflect on history.
Vico, an Italian historical philosopher, waved his sword neatly 300 years ago, cutting off the thinking connection between poetry and philosophy. However, in the past 300 years, poets have spread the seeds hidden in images and cultivated the "symbolic forest". Through corresponding means, poetry and philosophy were successfully unified. Generation seems to be a proof that in the unity of opposites between black and light, two short poems have crossed the walls of Vico's handiwork smartly, and the abstract philosophical implication is presented to the world in a charming way through appearances.
Therefore, "black" is the result of killing all the light, and night is the tomb of light, which is a suffocating symbol of a specific era. However, "black eyes" is undoubtedly the rebellion of the night. Its blackness is "endowed" by the night, and it is also the result of the night blocking the light. In addition, black eyes are not a symbol of abandoning light, but a symbol of longing for light. Because black does not reflect light, it has the characteristic of completely absorbing light. Black eyes are the eyes of this generation ready to absorb light at any time.
From another point of view, black eyes also reflect the critical spirit, which is a deep denial of the great arrogance of black to black and night. Compared with the colorful bright world, black is an end, which is opposite to light. However, the extremes meet, and the black eyes rebellious from the dark night are definitely easier to accept the light than the eyes of any color. In other words, the great awakening of the "generation" coming from the specific black age is beyond the reach of other people in out of the dark.
Two short poems, with grand topics and profound themes, fully show the symbolic charm in the unity of opposites. Judging from the author's life course, the night in the poem seems to be a "ten-year catastrophe", and "a generation" of course refers to the contemporary China people who grew up in this particular historical stage. However, after all, poetry is not history, and the capacity of poetry can often be infinitely expanded by the magic of art. If we transcend time and space, we can easily see the image of "a generation" in people of different eras such as Qu Yuan, Du Fu and Lu Xun. They all live in the "dark night" and have particularly keen "black eyes".
The simple language and persistent pursuit intention of a generation also show a kind of character, which can be said to be a kind of "character poem" It brings together a series of contradictions between thinking and expression, form and content, title and poetic style in size, depth and image abstraction, and finally melts into the word 18, which profoundly and skillfully highlights the spiritual image of contemporary people. Sure enough, it detonated the feelings of the same generation! Dai is really a magical "detonator".
Gu Cheng's poem has only two sentences, but it has considerable weight in the history of contemporary poetry. With its high historical generality and philosophical light of dialectical thinking, it has high aesthetic value and strong artistic power.
This poem accurately expresses the emotional course of a generation and has a strong color of the times. "Night gives me black eyes", "night" symbolizes turbulent times, and "black eyes" refers to both reality and emptiness. It is true that our "descendants of the dragon" have yellow skin, black eyes and black hair. Black has dark, deep and sad feelings, and it has empty meaning. Ten years of the Cultural Revolution cast a heavy shadow on the hearts of a generation, especially the younger generation, leaving many wounds and causing gloom, depression and sadness. Some people say that this generation is a sinking generation and a lost generation, and it does have some truth. But who caused the damage or chaos? The poet clearly pointed out that it was "night" and accurately pointed out the logical relationship between the two, thus pointing the criticism at the evil forces that distorted the souls of young people.
Although the night has brought disaster to the younger generation, making them sink into confusion, even in the darkest moment, they have not lost their yearning for the light. They are not only a fallen and lost generation, but also a rising and awakening generation! This understanding and generalization of the poet shines with the brilliance of dialectical thinking.
It is better to curse the "night" than to curse the degeneration and confusion of this generation. How unfair it is to see only the "black eyes" of this generation, but not the bright flashes they are eager for! Two short poems summarize the psychological course of a generation and express the denial of dark politics and the yearning and pursuit of light.
This poem strongly proves that poetry is the essence of art, its ideological content is highly concentrated and its artistic expression is highly purified, which makes it have strength and capacity that novels, essays and other styles do not have. Poetry is not long but fine, poets, write shorter and finer!