When you use gentle hands
[Sweden] Lagkvist
When you use gentle hands
Close Close my eyes
I am surrounded by light
Like being in a country full of sunshine
You want to drown me In the dusk
And everything becomes bright!
Everything you have given me
is light, only light.
(Translated by Shi Mo, selected from "Foreign Poems")
Appreciation
Reading the poem "When You Use Gentle Hands", a discerning person will naturally discover , the greatest charm of this love poem is not only that it regards love as the source of light and warmly praises the greatness and sacredness of love, but more importantly, it lies in the artistic situation it constructs, which has a strong dramatic color .
First of all, although this poem uses the poet's own spiritual monologue throughout, his monologue is not talking to himself, nor is he analyzing himself to the readers, but like a drama on the stage where the characters in the play express themselves to others. A line spoken by a character in a play.
Secondly, the first line of the poem, "When you close my eyes with your gentle hands," not only points out the existence of another character (i.e., the poet's lover) opposite to the lyrical subject, but Moreover, her image is dynamically reflected, and "with gentle hands/close my eyes" can be seen as her action performance.
Thirdly, judging from the language flow of the poem, what the last six sentences convey is the psychological reaction of the lyrical subject "I" due to the above-mentioned behavior of "you". This psychological reaction It embodies a dramatic conflict in itself.
Finally, this poem only has "I" speaking, without the words of the other party. This shows that what this poem reflects is a fragment of life that has been cut off from beginning to end, and there are a lot of blank spaces in it. Readers are required to add. To a certain extent, it can be said that this poem is a transplantation of the dramatic monologue poem created by the great British poet Browning in the 19th century.
The poet occupies an extremely important position in modern Swedish literature and has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Although his artistic achievements were first reflected in poetry creation, in fact, he also made considerable achievements in dramas, novels, literary theory, etc. The dramatization of the poem "When You Use Gentle Hands" originated from this.
(Li Guiping)