Ye Zhi [Ireland]
Speak after a long silence; Right,
Don't alienate some couples or die,
The lampshade hides the unfriendly light,
The curtains blocked the unfriendly night,
We just talked and discussed.
The highest theme of art and poetry:
The aging of the body is wisdom, youth,
We are in love, really ignorant.
(Translated by Bian Zhilin)
This poem praises the touching scene of a pair of silent soul mates reunited after a long separation, in order to express the poet's thoughts and feelings about love, life and eternity. Combining his own painful experience, the poet expressed his feelings and kindly warned people to cherish fleeting youth, to bravely express and strive for love that may belong to him completely, and not to repeat the regrets of predecessors.
The first sentence of the poem, "I spoke after a long silence", gives people a deep feeling, meaning that the two lovers of that year should have spoken long ago and did not speak. After years of silence, when both of them were gray-haired and deeply immersed in their cheeks, they talked to each other for many years. The second sentence says that some lovers or friends of both sides have gone away, some have passed away, and there are no secrets that bother them anymore. Three or four sentences went on to say that only in this lonely old age can they stay in a dark room and talk about the most attractive and perfect state of mankind, that is, "art and poetry." Ye Zhi believes that the problems of human existence cannot be completely solved by science, but must be solved by some categories different from science, and art and poetry can play such an important role, so Ye Zhi calls them "the supreme theme". This supreme theme certainly involves love, life and eternal universal human problems. Only at this time, two soul mates expressed their deep affection for many years, and they regretted it. Love in youth is ignorant, and the lost youth and love can't return, leaving only aging and wisdom. Only art and poetry can unify them and make up for their shortcomings. Only art and poetry can unify and balance aging and youth, wisdom and ignorance, life and death, love and resentment, temporality and eternity. Therefore, couples who meet again after a long separation can speak soul mates, regrets, wisdom and eternal words after a long silence. Therefore, they can get rid of those unfriendly years and unfriendly troubles and meet again. This comforted their lost love and aging bodies. Love and ignorance in youth are supplemented and integrated by wisdom in old age, so love is transformed into eternity.
This poem not only warns us to cherish youth and win love, but also puts forward the supreme eternal theme of how to integrate youth and aging, ignorance and wisdom, love and hate. This is the content of the last four sentences of the poem and the theme of the whole poem.
After a long silence ... this is the beginning of a dramatic suspense. This sentence is bound to attract readers' attention. Why? Who is this role? Why are they silent, and it is a long silence? Such a beginning has an influence on readers. Then it describes the appearance of dramatic characters. A couple who should love each other but don't love each other met by chance today. They talked about the past and recalled the past. Therefore, this dramatic poem tells their past years in flashback. They used to love each other, but they did not know each other. They all have their own lovers and friends, but they are not bosom friends in love. They thought it was just the infatuation and fantasy of teenagers, but the original mutual admiration and silent love were missed by themselves, and this life can never be redeemed. This careful encounter turned into a thunderbolt-like electric shock, and they once again fell into a long silence, which contained many rich feelings and complex psychology that words could not express! It gives readers a long space for imagination and re-creation, which shows the poet's high artistic skills. The last two drama characters talked about the supreme theme of poetry and art, and the plot came to an end from * * * *, which was extremely wonderful.