Mr. Zhu Ziqing's famous prose.
-Original text
light-minded
Swallows have gone, and there is a time to come again; Willow withered, there is a time to green again; The peach blossom has withered, but it has blossomed again. But, smart, tell me, why are our days gone forever? Someone stole them: who is that? Where is it hidden? They escaped by themselves: where are they now?
I don't know how many days they gave me; But my hands are getting empty. Counting silently, more than 8 thousand days slipped away from me quietly; Like a drop of water on the tip of a needle in the sea, my days are dripping in the stream of time, without sound or shadow. I can't help bursting into tears.
Go wherever you go, and come wherever you come; What's the hurry between going and coming? When I get up in the morning, two or three sunsets shoot into the hut. The sun has feet, and it moves gently and skillfully; I also follow the rotation blankly. So-when washing your hands, the days pass from the basin; When eating, the days pass from the rice bowl; When I was silent, I passed by my eyes. I think he is in a hurry. When I reached out to cover my arm, he passed by the covered hand again. When I was lying in bed at dark, he passed me and flew away from my feet. When I open my eyes and see the sun again, it will be a new day. I covered my face and sighed. But the shadow of the new day began to flash with a sigh.
What can I do in the days when I fly away, in the world of thousands of families? Only wandering, only running; In the rush of more than 8,000 days, what is left except wandering? The past days, like smoke, were scattered by the breeze, like fog, evaporated by Chu Yang; What traces did I leave? Did I leave traces like hairspring? I came into this world naked, and I will go back naked in the blink of an eye? But it can't be flat. Why did you come for nothing this time?
You are very clever. Tell me, why are our days gone forever?
-Appreciation
Zhu Ziqing's prose poem "Hurry" was written on1March 28th, 922. It was the ebb tide of the May 4th Movement, and the reality constantly disappointed the author. However, the poet is not willing to sink in hesitation. He stands on his "neutral" position and pursues persistently. He believes: "Every process of life has its own independent meaning and value-every moment has its own meaning and value! Every moment has its considerable position in continuous time. " (Zhu Ziqing's letter to Yu Pingbo, 2002 1 1 7th) Therefore, he wants to "step by step and leave a deep footprint" (Zhu Ziqing's destruction) in order to achieve "paragraph satisfaction". The whole poem reveals the poet's low complaint about inner injustice with faint sadness, and also reflects the general mood of intellectual youth during the ebb tide of the May 4th Movement.
Haste is a poet's emotional work. The poet was inspired by the spring scenery in front of him and expressed it with the help of imagination. Imagine "let the unknown things appear, the poet's pen makes them complete, and let the ethereal nothingness find its place and name." (Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream) Poets express ethereal time and abstract thoughts through phenomena, and choose and capture vivid images with the poet's emotions as clues. The poet's mood shows ups and downs from intangible to tangible, from looming to clear with the passage of time.
"Swallows have gone, and there is a time to come again; Willow withered, there is a time to green again; Peach blossoms are thanks, and there are times when they bloom again. " The poet sketched out a vague picture with a few strokes. Instead of describing the true feelings of spring scenery, the author brings the reader into the picture, accepts the infection of this emotion, and at the same time makes an image hint: the rise and fall of nature shown in this picture is the trace of time flying, so the poet pursues his own whereabouts that day. However, my days are "gone forever". I can't see or touch them. Am I "stolen" or "escaped"? The signs of natural metabolism contrast with their invisible days, revealing the poet's sense of loss in a series of interrogative sentences.
"Like a drop of water in the sea, my days are dripping in the stream of time." It is extremely exaggerated to use the novel metaphor of "a drop of water" to compare a person's more than 8,000 days. Compared with the vastness of time flow compared to the sea, it highlights the characteristics of a person's life as "silent and shadowless". Actually, there are traces of their own days here. A drop of water is its image. Falling into the sea has its slight sound. The poet tries his best to feel it visually and audibly, looking for the past days. But more than 8,000 days have quietly "slipped away". The ruthlessness of time and the shortness of life make the poet unable to "sweat" and "cry".
How "hurried" is time? The poet did not have an abstract discussion. He expresses his feelings and potential consciousness through images, "penetrating the familiar surface and looking for' new things'". As a result, the ethereal time was visualized, and the poet's "unique secret" was revealed in the already common life picture.
"In the morning, the hut shot into two or three oblique sun. His foot is in the sun, and he moves it gently and skillfully. "The sun is personified. Like a girl, he quietly passes by the poet and" walks "with the sun. Then, the poet used a series of parallelism sentences to express the flight of time. Eating, washing hands and meditating are the details of people's daily life, but the poet is keenly aware of the passage of time. When he wanted to keep it, it jumped smartly, flew away lightly, slipped away quietly, flashed quickly, and the pace of time became faster and faster. The poet described the changing image of time with vivid words, giving people a vivid feeling. We heard the brisk pace of time and the vibration of the poet's heart.
In the rush of time, the poet lingered and pursued deeply and persistently. The dark reality contradicts his enthusiasm, and the rush of time contrasts with his inaction, which makes the poet see more clearly: "The past is like a light smoke, blown away by the breeze, like a mist, melted by Chu Yang." If the third section still reflects the passage of time by the author's specific feelings on a certain day, and reflects the general situation by individuals, here, the author has made a high summary of the passage of more than 8,000 days, so that the various images of the hasty passage of time can be condensed in one point, making the passage of time more clear and sensible: colored, light blue, milky white; Dynamics means "blowing away" and "evaporation". The poet saw and touched it, soberly felt the passage of time with all his body and mind, and pursued the "gossamer trace" of his life.
The poet flies in the sky with emotion, creates the environment with emotion, visualizes the ethereal time, and adds a series of lyric questions, which naturally reveals the pain of self-struggle and self-confession of the soul, and also shows his persistent pursuit in wandering. Simple and plain reveals a strong lyrical atmosphere.
Poetry has musical beauty. Metric poetry embodies musicality through meter and rhyme, while free verse also uses branches and rhyme to keep rhythm. Prose poetry abandons all these external forms, and its musical beauty is naturally revealed from the organic unity of the poet's internal emotional fluctuation and the rhythm of language. Hunter thinks: "Although it is prose, it sometimes shows the full existence of rhythm, so it broke away from its nominal type and got the name of' prose poem', which is a semi-rhythmic work in the field of poetry." (Fu Donghua translated "Introduction to Aesthetics") Haste is such a "semi-rhythmic work".
In a hurry shows the author's pursuit of time traces and the rapid flow of emotions. The whole style is unified in "light", and the rhythm is smooth and smooth, light and smooth. In order to coordinate the rhythm of emotions, the author uses a series of parallelism sentences: "When washing your hands, the days pass from the basin;" When eating, the days pass from the rice bowl; Silent time ... "The same sentence has been simplified, and a wisp of emotion affects the rapid development of the active and quiet picture, which makes me seem to see the flow of time. And most of the sentences are short sentences of five or six words, which are light and smooth. Syntactic structure is simple, without multi-level changes, such as flowing rivers, like harmonicas, with continuous sound waves. Its musicality lies not in intonation, but in the fluency and lightness of sentences. The author didn't deliberately carve it, just "write casually and honestly". With vivid spoken language, poetry can be expressed freely, and the rhythm of language and emotion naturally overlap, so that poetry can achieve symmetry and harmony.
The use of reduplicated words in Hurry also makes its language full of rhythm. The sun is oblique, it moves gently and skillfully, I rotate blankly, time passes in a hurry, and it passes through smartly ... The use of these overlapping words makes poetry not only achieve visual authenticity, but also achieve auditory authenticity, that is, on the one hand, it seems that time has passed, on the other hand, it writes the sound of time marching. At the same time, the poet expresses objective things on the one hand and achieves subjective feelings on the other. The realistic voice makes the poet's mood fluctuate, which is expressed through the voice of language, and the feelings and scenery naturally blend together. We can also see that the poet's overlapping words are naturally and symmetrically distributed in each sentence to show its distant rhythm, which coincides with the author's subtle emotional fluctuations.
Repetition is also a common means to maintain the musical characteristics of prose poems. The so-called "endless words" not only shows the poet's deep affection, but also adds a sense of melody to the poem. "Only wandering, only in a hurry; After more than 8,000 days of haste, what is left except wandering? " Words such as "wandering" and "running around" appear repeatedly, and a bitter feeling echoes repeatedly. "What traces do I keep? Have I left traces like a hairspring? " The change of the number of synonymous sentences makes the feelings step by step, showing the beauty of neatness in the jagged. The repetition of the conclusion sentence strengthens the theme of the work and draws the ups and downs of the poet's feelings. The use of repetition and repeated chanting has played a role in singing and sighing.
The structure of "Hurry" is also very simple, and eleven questions are the clues of mood. Asking without answering, drifting with the flow, not only shows the fluency of the work, but also shows the leap of the poem, which makes the image unfold quickly. In order to express the leap of emotion, ordinary poetry is often different from ordinary language syntactic structure, ignoring grammatical restrictions and omitting some sentence elements. Prose poetry basically adopts the sentence pattern of prose, and the author's emotional jump is generally not as big as that of free verse. But it is also different from prose, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, connected by the author's thoughts. The questions in "Hurry" have no answers, but the answers are implicit, which can not only inspire readers' imagination, arouse deep thought and show its implicit beauty, but also show the rapid flow of collaborators' emotions and the rhythmic beauty of poetry.
The full text shows the author's helplessness, anxiety and regret over the passage of time.
Brief introduction of the author
Zhu Ziqing (zh ū z and q ě ng) (1899165438+1October 22-65438+August 0948 12), formerly known as Hua Zi, was named Qiushi and had strings. Modern famous writers, scholars and democratic fighters. Born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, he was born in Haizhou, Jiangsu Province (now Lianyungang) and later settled in Yangzhou with his grandfather and father. Zhu Ziqing's grandfather, Zhu Zeyu, whose real name was Yu, changed his surname because he inherited the Zhujiajian family. Being cautious, he served as a judge in Haizhou, Jiangsu Province during Guangxu period of Qing Dynasty 10 for more than 0 years. My father's name is Hong Jun, and his word is Xiaopo. He married Zhou and is a scholar. In the 27th year of Guangxu (190 1), Hongjun Zhu went from Haizhou to Shaobo Town, belonging to Yangzhou Prefecture. Two years later, the whole family moved to Yangzhou City and settled in Yangzhou. Zhu Ziqing's wife is named Chen Zhuyin. When I was a child, I studied in a private school and was influenced by the traditional culture of China. 19 12 entered the first year of primary school.
Zhu Ziqing lived in Yangzhou for 13 years and spent his childhood and adolescence in Yangzhou. His feelings about life in this ancient city are subtle and complicated. Perhaps life is too monotonous, so he later said that there is only a "thin shadow" left in his childhood memory, "just like being washed away by the flood, it is shocking to be lonely!" However, in the long and tortuous journey of life, childhood is the first "post station" after all.
Yangzhou is a famous cultural city with beautiful scenery, with lakes and mountains and pleasant scenery. Many poets, such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Su Dongpo and Ouyang Xiu, have been lingering here, seeking seclusion and success, and have written many magnificent poems. Yangzhou is also a heroic historical city. In the history of resisting foreign aggression, it has written countless brilliant chapters and left many touching stories. The beautiful scenery and rich cultural atmosphere of the ancient city virtually cultivated the temperament of young Zhu Ziqing, and cultivated his peaceful and upright character and interest in natural beauty. The beautiful landscape of Yangzhou, like rain and dew, moistens his heart, nourishes his feelings, enriches his imagination and makes his feelings full of poetry and painting forever. Yangzhou, a famous historical and cultural city, had a subtle and far-reaching influence on him.
19 16 After graduating from high school, Zhu Ziqing was admitted to Peking University Preparatory College. Go to sleep, little man. 19 19 was written in February. It was his first poem. He was a participant in the May 4th patriotic movement and embarked on the literary road under the influence of the May 4th wave. Mao Zedong once praised Zhu Ziqing's backbone, saying that he was "seriously ill and would rather starve to death than receive American' relief food'".
65438-0920 After graduating from the Philosophy Department of Peking University, he taught middle schools in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and took an active part in the New Literature Movement. Poetry Magazine was founded by Yu Pingbo and others in 1922, and it was the earliest poetry publication in the birth period of new poetry. He is a member of the early literature research society. The long poem "Sinking" was published in 1923. At this time, he also wrote beautiful essays such as "Paddle Shadows and Lights Shadow Qinhuai River".
1August, 925, taught in Tsinghua University and began to study China's classical literature. The creation is mainly prose. 1927' s Back and Moonlight on the Lotus Pond are well-known masterpieces. 193 1 year, he studied in Britain and roamed Europe. After returning home, he wrote some miscellaneous notes about Europe. 1September, 932, director of the Chinese Department of Tsinghua University. War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression broke out 1937, moved south to Kunming with the school, and served as a professor at National Southwest Associated University, teaching courses such as Song poetry and literary studies. During this period, I wrote the semantic shadow of prose. 1946 returned to Beijing from Kunming as the director of the Chinese Department of Tsinghua University. 1947, Zhu Ziqing signed the declaration of thirteen professors. Protest against the arbitrary arrest of the masses by the authorities.
Zhu Ziqing suffered from a serious stomach trouble in his later years. His monthly salary is only enough to buy three bags of flour, which is not enough for his family 12, and he has no money to treat diseases. At that time, the Kuomintang colluded with the United States to launch a civil war, and the United States implemented a policy of aiding Japan. One day, Wu Han asked Zhu Ziqing to sign the declaration of "Protesting American aid policy to Japan and refusing to accept American aid flour". He resolutely signed his name and said, "I would rather die of poverty and illness than accept such insulting charity." In August of this year (1948) and 12, Zhu Ziqing was poor and died in Beijing. Before he died, he told his wife, "I signed a document rejecting American flour, and our family will never buy American flour rationed by the Kuomintang again." Zhu Ziqing was seriously ill and would rather starve to death than accept "relief food" from the United States, which showed the backbone of China people.
After Zhu Ziqing died of illness, he was buried in Wan 'an Cemetery near Xiangshan, and the tombstone was engraved with "The Tomb of Professor Zhu Ziqing in Tsinghua University". 1990, his wife Chen Zhuyin died and was buried with her husband.
Zhu Ziqing embarked on the road of literature and was first famous for his poems. Published a long poem "Destruction" and some short poems, which were included in Snow Dynasty and Traces. Since the mid-1920s, he has devoted himself to the creation of prose, including the collection of essays "The Back", "European Miscellanies", "You and Me", "London Miscellanies" and the collection of essays "Standards and Standards" and "Appreciation of Elegance and Vulgarity". His prose includes landscape writing, travel notes, lyric poetry and prose. First of all, he wrote beautiful scenery with meticulous and beautiful "Qinhuai River in the Shadow of Paddle Lights" and "Moonlight on the Lotus Pond", showing the achievements of vernacular literature; Following the sentimental works such as The Back, Children and For the Dead Wife, he set up a model of "conversational" prose with strong literariness and naturalness. Finally, the mixed feelings of poets, scholars and fighters are unified with subtle language and interesting reasons. He contributed to the construction of the concise, lyrical and natural style of modern prose.
As a scholar, Zhu Ziqing has made great achievements in poetry theory, classical literature, the history of new literature and Chinese education. He is the author of Essays on New Poems, Arguments on Poems' Expression and Intention, Frequently Talking about Classics, Chinese Teaching (co-authored with Ye Shengtao) and Outline of China New Literature Research Lectures, etc. His works were included in The Complete Works of Zhu Ziqing (Jiangsu Education Press).
Zhu Ziqing was diligent all his life, with 26 kinds of poems, comments and academic research works, about 2 million words. His posthumous works were compiled into Zhu Ziqing's Collection and Zhu Ziqing's Selected Poems.