Edgar Allan Poe advocated that the shorter the poem, the better. The name "long poem" is a contradiction in terms. The longest poem cannot take more than half an hour to read. Chinese poetry is a blitzkrieg in literary appreciation, lasting only two to three minutes on average. Compared with Western novella poems, Chinese long poems are just a light kite in the rhyme. Of course, the prohibition that no word rhymes twice in a poem limits the length of Chinese poetry. However, if the shoes form the feet, the feet also form the shoes; the poetic form may be the product of the poetic heart and adapt to the needs of the poetic heart. Compared with Western poets, Chinese poets can only be regarded as carvers of cherry stones and two-inch ivory cubes. However, short poems can have far-reaching meanings, and contraction does not prevent extension, as if we want to see farther, with every frown. Foreign short poems are more expensive than harsh and cutting. Chinese poets want you to see the "infinity" from the "easy end".
A Chinese poet said: "The words are exhausted but the meaning is endless"; another poet said: "The scene that is difficult to describe is like the present; the endless meaning can be seen beyond the words", Using the most precise and precise form to tease out a realm that is indescribable and difficult to put into place is exactly in line with Verlaine's conditions for poetry: the gray song, the vague and the specific.
This is what most Western readers think of as the characteristic of Chinese poetry: full of hints. I'd like to rephrase it and say it's a pregnant silence. What is said is not as good as what is not said, but only insinuates what cannot be said. As Keats famously said: Audible music is beautiful, but inaudible music is even more beautiful.
Our poet also said: "Silence is better than sound at this time", and also said: "Understanding the silent strings refers to the wonderful things." Sometimes, he lures you to the limits of language and writing. The following is The deep silence: "There is a true meaning in this, but I have forgotten the words when I want to argue." "Speak calmly, and the enlightenment is self-sufficient." Sometimes he will not leave it, making you think about it far away: "The beauty rolls up the bead curtain, sitting deep My eyebrows are furrowed, but I see wet tears, and I don’t know who I hate in my heart." "Matsushita asked the boy, saying that the teacher went to collect medicine, but he was only in this mountain, and he didn’t know where he was in the depths of the clouds." This "I don't know" is so exciting! Chinese poems end with questions more often than any Western poem I know. This is a very thought-provoking fact. Let’s take a very common example. There is a "where is" formula in Western medieval Latin poetry to lament the unforgiveness of death. Poems from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and the Czech Republic have all used this formula, and the most wonderful one is Wei Rong's "Song of Ancient Beauty": Each sentence first asks where is the Western Xishi, Nanwei, or Wang Zhaojun, Yang Guifei, and then concluded: "But where is last year's snow?"
Coincidentally, this formula is most commonly used in Chinese poetry, such as "All the strong men are dead, and the rest are safe." "; "Where is the emperor's son in the pavilion now? The Yangtze River is empty outside the threshold"; "The colors of the flowers have changed this year, but who will be there when they bloom next year"; "Where are the people who came to play with the moon, the scenery is vaguely like last year"; "Spring is gone. , Where are the people; when people go, where will the spring be?"
Asking questions without answering, answering questions with questions will leave you with a feeling of indignation but no whereabouts, and a gulp of words with no explanation. What remains, as Hamlet said before he died, is silence—a silence deeper than tears and sighs.
Therefore, new Western punctuation is often not suitable for our old poetry. Punctuation increases the clarity of a sentence, but it can also cause flow to become frozen, and continuity to become fragmented. A complex and intricate psychological expression is often forced by punctuation and puts on a simple mask. Punctuation can give poetry a clear sense of normality. It is a kind of despicable understanding that hinders what Hofmundsdale calls: the great art of contrasting backgrounds and the mystery of flickering candle shadows.
--Qian Zhongshu