This is a big gift for you,
A rope binds your love.
Hanging high on the branch.
I gave you an ivory house,
There are white roses in the flower pavilion!
The narrow crib is reserved for me,
White, oh, as white as hemlock!
There are peach trees and jasmine flowers here.
Oh, red roses look beautiful!
Give me cypress and rue,
Rosemary is the most beautiful!
See you captivate those lovers,
This man sleeps in the green grass!
Look at the marks I left on the beach,
Plant a lily in my heart!
(Wang, translated)
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Wilde was famous for his freedom and boldness. In today's tolerant social environment, he has become a cultural idol of gay groups. But many people have a misunderstanding about him, thinking that he was born gay. In fact, when he was young, he fell madly in love with a beautiful woman named Florence Belcombe. Unfortunately, the latter finally chose to marry braam stock, the "father of ghost stories", which was a great blow to him. This "song" is the product of Wilde's lovelorn love, and it was included in the poetry collection of 188 1 year.
Structurally, this is a veritable "song", namely "chansons". At first, this kind of "song" has only two lines in each section, and the two lines have the same number of syllables, which is similar to the double rhyme style. Wilde made a variation of the traditional "song" here. Each stanza consists of four lines of poems, with the same number of syllables in the first and third lines, the same number of syllables in the second and fourth lines, and the rhyme form is abab, as if two traditional "songs" were intertwined into the same "song". In addition, reduplicated words such as "for you", "for me", "red" and "white" appear repeatedly in the poem, adding musicality to the whole poem.
The first section implicitly points out Wilde's abortive love affair. It is said that Wilde met Belcombe in Dublin on 1876 and fell in love with her at first sight. He gave her a cross with his name engraved on it, carefully painted a portrait of her and even proposed to her. "A gold ring" and "a white dove" in the poem are the sincere courtship messages sent by Wilde. However, Belcombe is ungrateful because she has a heart. Her "love" was pulled by "a rope" and hung high on the "branch".
The next two sections show a contrast between "you" and "me". Getting love and losing love, happiness and sadness, happiness and despair are everywhere. "You" live in the "ivory tower" of love, accompanied by white roses, mahogany, jasmine and red roses; I was curled up in a narrow bed as white as hemlock flowers, surrounded by cypress, rue and rosemary. The plants and flowers here have specific cultural connotations, which skillfully interpret the different emotions and situations of "you" and "me". The flower language of white roses is pure love; Although hemlock flowers, like white roses, are full of white flowers, they are very toxic. Socrates and Demosthenes died of hemlock juice in those days. Xiang Taomu, also known as Ai Shenmu, is a symbol of love because it is dedicated to Venus, the goddess of love, in western mythology. Cypress is the emotional carrier of sadness and mourning. According to legend, there was a boy named Separis who liked riding horses and hunting. He shot a deer by mistake and was heartbroken. Later, he became a cypress. Jasmine is pure, fragrant and lasting, and is regarded as the flower of love; Rue is the English word for Rue, but in old English Rue also means "regret and sadness". Red roses symbolize passionate love; The flower language of rosemary is memory and commemoration. In ancient times, westerners often put rosemary on twigs into the graves of the dead to show their admiration and nostalgia. "You" in poetry, like white rose, peach, jasmine and red rose, is full of love, happiness and joy. I lost my love, but I saw sadness, despair and death surrounded by hemlock, cypress, rue and rosemary.
In the last section, the emotional and situational contrast between "you" and "me" is intensified infinitely, which is directly manifested in two extreme forms of life and death. "You" continue to deal with sweet love, while "I" can only leave lonely footprints on the beach. Finally, "I" slept in the "green grass", but begged to "plant a lily" in my heart. As we know, lily exudes a fresh and refined atmosphere, which has been a symbol of purity and elegance since ancient times. Although "I" can't get your love, I feel sad in my heart, and my life is worse than death, but "I" still hope to be as noble as lily and maintain my dignity. Wilde in real life, after being rejected by Belcombe, wrote a letter to her, claiming to stay away from Ireland and never come back. He didn't choose to die and sleep underground like the poem "I", but avoided leaving his hometown and starting over. It can be said that Wilde buried his sad self in the "green grass" of poetry, and then got ready to throw himself into a colorful new life. From this perspective, poetry really has a magical healing effect.
(Cai Haiyan)