I love this land
If/I were a bird,
I should also sing with a hoarse throat:
This land/land battered by storms,
This ever-raging/river of our sorrow and indignation,
This endlessly/blows/irritates/ The wind,
and the / extremely gentle / dawn from the forest...
- Then / I died,
Even the feathers / rotted Inside the land.
Why/are there always tears in my eyes?
Because/I love this land/deeply...
November 17, 1938
Ai Qing, the "poet playing the reed flute", is the most influential representative poet in the third decade of modern new poetry. He is so keen to express his love for the motherland and farmers in his poems. From "I Love This Land" to "Snow Falls on the Land of China", Ai Qing has repeatedly used land imagery to describe the suffering reality of the motherland in a dignified style, expressing his patriotic passion and embodying the poet's Unique poetry. However, the "bird" image in this poem is often ignored by people. In fact, the reason why this poem has lasting artistic charm is inseparable from the literary sparks generated by the collision of the "land" and "bird" images. , which reflects the poet's unique personal consciousness in the tide of the times, and is significantly different from the poets of the same period.
? This article "I Love This Land" begins with "If I were a bird", using the image of a bird to write about the poet's feelings about "being hit by the storm" and the troubled times. The deep emotions of the motherland. The land endures the ravages of the storm, and the birds are thin and small, but they still insist on singing.
"This land/land battered by storms, this ever-raging/river of our grief and indignation, this endless/blowing/angry/wind" three sentences, parallelism The use of sentence patterns reads smoothly and naturally, with a heavy and sorrowful momentum, and then turns to "and the / extremely gentle / dawn from the forest", the full passion tends to calm down, and the emotions relax. It is written with suffering, tears, resentment, and hope.
In the end, "When I die, even my feathers will rot in the ground." The emotion contained in this is solemn and touching, which produces a gripping artistic power, especially the last two sentences, "Why my "There are always tears in my eyes? Because I love this land deeply" is often known and recited by people. It is true and simple, and it infiltrates this "love" into the "land" in a subtle, slow and roomy manner. It is also more It naturally blends into this poem and obtains a concise summary and sublimation.
? Ai Qing has his own unique feelings and way of artistically expressing the world. His personal feelings and experiences are often expressed through imagery. Poetry must express emotions and thoughts through images, and images become the soul of poetry. Through the selection and description of images, the rich emotions in the poet's heart are implicitly expressed. Ai Qing's "I Love This Land" uses novel and simple lyrical imagery to describe his deep feelings for the motherland, concisely and powerfully showing the image of a suffering China. In his poetry creation, Ai Qing often chooses images from daily life, such as land, sun, rivers, snow, etc., which makes the images in his poems appear particularly friendly, and he often gives the images he chooses a very unique character. Its connotation makes the images in its poems very novel. The image of land has always been one of the central images in Ai Qing's poetry. The image of land embodies the poet's unique feelings, observations and understanding of life.
This poem was written in 1938. The land is vast, vast and has a sense of history. It was not only the cradle of raising the poet, but also a symbol of the image of the motherland that was enduring aggression and war at that time. The reason why patriotism is a theme that poets can never sing about is related to the poet's personality, temperament and art. Ai Qing believes that poetry should express not only personal joys and sorrows, but also the joys and sorrows of the times. Personal joys and sorrows will inevitably be closely related to the times. Especially in the war years, writers are naturally concerned about the fate of mankind, and patriotism often becomes the expressive purpose of most writers.
Dai Wangshu, the "Yuxiang poet", also wrote a poem such as "I use my damaged palms to explore this vast land." He also chose "land" as his object of expression.
In addition, in addition to the "land" image, there is also a "bird" image, which we should not ignore. The images of birds in classical poetry are rich, with different meanings, including joy, sadness, and loneliness. Nowadays, birds often symbolize freedom, from Tao Yuanming's "The mountain air is beautiful day and night, and the flying birds return to each other." to "The moon." "Birds appear in the mountains and sing in the spring streams." The image of "birds" seems to be more used to create a natural and leisurely mood. Whether it is freedom or leisure, they all express a more personal consciousness.
Although patriotism is the theme, it does not mean the disappearance of the poet's self. Ai Qing said that "the poet should be the pioneer of self-feeling. Without self, there is no poetry." Therefore, his poems can always bring out the present. Self-personalized color.
Here, the "bird" as a symbol of freedom abandons freedom and sings for the land with a hoarse throat without hesitation. Even if it dies, the "feathers" will "rot in the soil." Faced with broken mountains and rivers and desolate lives, no one should "fly away alone" when the disaster comes. However, it does take great courage not to choose to "fly away" from the haggard China and stay singing.
So, here, as advocated by the Chinese New Poetry School, does Ai Qing’s poetry abandon the “small self” and integrate it into the “big self”? Has the poem's personal discourse transformed into a collective discourse?
The last simple question and answer reveals the answer. Ai Qing's poetry has been influenced by symbolism, and his works often emphasize the penetration of subjective emotions. At the end of the poem, Ai Qing suddenly uttered two lines of confession. These two lines not only expressed the aspirations of the entire nation, but also were the uncontrollable expression of the grief lingering in the heart of this "I".
From this, the whole song is filled with thick and painful feelings in the collision and blending of the images of "land" and "bird". This feeling belongs to "me" and "everyone" It's "me" to "everyone". The "little self" and the "big self" seem to have achieved a harmonious position in this poem, which is rare.
Ai Qing is a conscious advocate of free-style poetry and advocates the beauty of prose. The characteristics of his poetic style are the coordination between unrestrainedness and restraint, achieving unity in change, and achieving unity in unevenness. Get harmony in it, get harmony in complexity. Reading "I Love This Land", in the solemn and flowing rhythm, in the passionate emotions, readers can feel the poet's persistence and honesty. In the poem, Ai Qing uses natural prose sentences and colloquial sentences The use of "" makes the poem catchy to read, and declares his deep patriotism in the poems that express his heart from the heart.
Although "I Love This Land" takes patriotism as its theme, readers can also think of more between the lines of the poem. Excellent literary works always have huge space for interpretation. As the saying goes, "image is greater than thought", literary image is the unity of certainty and uncertainty, which shows that artistic image mainly relies on the imagination of readers, and the connotation of image is much more complicated. The meaning is implicit and cannot be grasped by one theme. Therefore, readers can supplement, develop and enrich the connotation of literary images on the basis of their own life experience and cultural accomplishment. The poem uses simple and simple "land" images and "bird" images, as well as free and unified prose sentence patterns, to express the poet's heartfelt voice in a concentrated manner, and has become a well-known masterpiece.