Zhang (Beijing, Doctor of Literature)
Zhang Liqun (Liaoning native, Doctor of Literature)
In the historical process of new poetry, the sound of meter is always accompanied by the development of new poetry. The appearance of this phenomenon, in a sense, not only includes the problems of writing and form of new poetry itself, but also is related to the fact that classical poetry always haunts the poet's mind. The metricalization of new poetry (including various variant sounds) still has practical significance today. Facing the current trend of new poetry, the metricalization of new poetry is neither an echo of "advocating the vernacular movement again" nor an attempt to lead poetry creation to "poetic classicality", but just a kind of exploration of physics and chemistry, so as to sort out some experiences for consideration.
(■ Zhang Liqun □ Zhang)
■ In order to find a suitable starting point for this complex topic, I personally think that it may be more practical to enter this proposition from the comparison of lyrics and new poems. Even in popular songs, those works that are difficult to be elegant in quality can't be ignored when recalling their lyrics. This phenomenon of lyrics is of course related to the difficulty of music, singing and the so-called "musicality"; However, correspondingly, it is difficult to use some new poems as lyrics. Did we start this conversation on the premise of distinguishing between lyrics and new poems?
When it comes to the metrical problem of new poetry, the lyrics are indeed a comparable object. In recent years, some poetry anthologies have included lyrics (such as Cui Jian's Nothing). ) has aroused concern and discussion. People often take out some lyrics and say, look, how poetic! This is simply poetry! This is better than many poems! Wait a minute. But once the lyrics and poems are compared in this way, there is actually a boundary between them. Only when we realize the differences between them can we think of seeking some way between them. Sometimes a person reading a lyric really feels like a poem. But the complexity of the problem here is that in a song, the power of lyrics is not independent, but attached to or derived from the power of melody, and its function is often weaker than that of melody and drowned by the latter, or it becomes the foil of the latter and is in a dominant position, and sometimes lyrics can even be ignored in the song (of course, this is not absolute); On the other hand, when writing lyrics, an author will always be influenced and restricted by the melody of songs (many songs are lyrics because of songs), and try his best to adapt to the melody in terms of vocabulary, rhythm and melody. In this way, due to the need of rhythm-"musicality", repetition and rhyme become the common means of lyrics creation, which makes many lyrics read like a funny limerick (although limerick is also a funny poem). Saying that a lyric is a poem or better than a poem is also related to the different understanding and evaluation criteria of poetry style at a deeper level. For example, some people say that poetry can move people's hearts, and some lyrics will be regarded as poetry because of their appeal. Perhaps, when judging whether a lyric is a poem, it also implies some hierarchical concepts of the poem, such as purity and impure, elegance and vulgarity, and so on. The "doggerel" mentioned above seems to reflect this. Of course, some people think that branches are poems, so there is no boundary between lyrics and poems, and between words and poems of other branches.
On the other hand, as you said, some poems are difficult to be incorporated into songs as lyrics. This actually involves the understanding of the characteristics of new poetry or historical characteristics. It should be noted that the new poem was read and sung "against" at the beginning, which seems to be more suitable for silent reading. Zhu Ziqing once pointed out the reason why new poetry is difficult to read from the perspective of language: "The language of new poetry is not a folk language, but a Europeanized or modernized language, which is not easy to read smoothly"; "New vocabulary, sentence patterns and metaphors, as well as unskilled reading skills are all possible reasons" (Reading and Poetry). The clumsy and changeable sentence patterns of new poetry do not meet the expectations of ordinary readers for obvious rhythm, and also seem to hinder the generation of a certain rhythm or "musicality". From this point of view, new poems are indeed more difficult to match than those catchy words. However, all this is just a superficial phenomenon, and the prosodic mechanism of new poetry is actually very complicated and hidden.
In the history of new poetry, the development of meter has always been accompanied by the development of new poetry. From the concept of "Crescent School" to the top-down behavior of "New Folk Song Movement", the development of metrical can not reverse the liberalization of new poetry, but it is a solution to the problem. However, modern Chinese is different from ancient Chinese after all. Similarly, the survival field and functional consciousness of new poetry often form a logical "fault" with "classicism" (at least in form). In this regard, I think: this is not only a traditional and modern problem, but also a reflection of cultural "unconscious psychology" on "writing right" Can we talk about this problem in combination with the history of new poetry?
It is true that the pursuit of meter is an endless landscape throughout the history of new poetry. At different stages, many poets put forward various schemes of "meter" according to their own ideas, such as Lu Zhiwei's "meter is not a terrible evil", Wen Yiduo's "three beauties", Lin Geng's "semi-teasing" and Zheng Min's "tone design", which can all be called constructive schemes. /kloc-in the 1990s, an occasional publication named Modern Metric Poetry appeared, and a group of poets devoted themselves to discussing and practicing modern metrical poetry. These, together with the creation of old-style poems that have always existed and seem to be intensifying at present, add some complex elements and colors to the development of new poetry. It should be said that the metrical scheme in some periods appeared as a self-correcting force for the internal adjustment of new poetry, such as the opinions of He Qifang and Bian in11950. On the one hand, the desire for metrical scheme reflects the interest and orientation of poetics itself, on the other hand, it is really related to a strong cultural psychology-the conversion to the traditional concept and image of "poetry" and the corresponding lack of self-confidence. We can't help but say that the stereotyped description of poetry handed down for thousands of years is still playing a role. In some people's eyes, poetry must have distinctive "form" characteristics, and the fundamental guarantee of this "form" is meter. The new poetry in those people's eyes is not poetry, to be exact, it is not poetry in the classical sense. Of course, the discussion about meter in the "New Folk Song Movement" in the 1950' s was not only motivated by this, but also included ideological factors, which made it more complicated.
There are many reasons why various metrical schemes have not taken root in new poetry. In addition to what you call "survival field" and functional transformation (Cang Di believes that "the birth of new poetry is not the inevitable result of rebellion against classical poetry, but the inevitable result of the development of a new aesthetic space in the cultural conflict between China and the West"), the change of language is an important factor that cannot be ignored, even a decisive factor. As we know, in modern Chinese, the combination of sound and meaning of words and sentences, the increase of complex polysyllabic words and the appearance of a large number of long sentences challenge the lines and structure of new poetry, and it is difficult to achieve the sense of symmetry required by the new poetry meter; Moreover, the loose syntax of modern Chinese also leads to the loss of strict phonological meaning to some extent. The limitations of these languages make it difficult to form their musicality, which is also the reason why it is always difficult to form a "conclusion" in various metrical schemes. At the same time, the particularity of new poetry genre is also worth considering. Compared with other modern literary genres, new poetry seems to be a style of expressing "anxiety" (to borrow Jiang Tao's words), which is always full of spiritual conflicts; To a certain extent, modern Chinese and new poetry are in conflict with each other, not in harmony with each other. It is precisely because of this that the legitimacy of new poetry as a style is constantly questioned, while other genres such as novels and essays have not encountered similar crises. It is not difficult to find that among several schools, the internal disputes and clamors of new poetry are the most.
■ There is always an unavoidable reason in the voices that can still be seen to criticize the new poetry and demand the new vernacular movement. That is, the vernacular movement during the May 4th Movement was an act of learning from the West and betraying the classics. However, after the new poetry became a "rambling" free poem, it did not learn the formal side of western poetry, such as the sonnets of English poetry and Mayakovski's "political lyrics".
There are too many prejudices and unnecessary theoretical presuppositions in criticizing the relationship between new poetry and western poetry, so I won't talk about it here. As for saying that new poetry has not learned the "form" of western poetry, the difference in ideographic and phonological expression between Chinese and western characters you mentioned may indeed be one reason. Historically, modern Chinese, as the language of new poetry, is based on spoken language, but different from western languages with prominent phonetic features, various phonetic changes play a leading role in the positioning of expression, and the pronunciation of modern Chinese is only an auxiliary role. This is reflected in the writing of new poetry, which makes some efforts to popularize poetry completely dependent on the external acoustic effect of language somewhat futile. Because some people just understand the beat as an external (pleasant) sound that acts on hearing. At this point, the pictographic function of Chinese still plays a role in the dark. However, after Sonnets, a western metrical poem, was "transplanted" into the context of China, successful writers like Zhu Xiang, Sun Dayu and Feng Zhi still appeared, and their attempts can be regarded as another metrical attempt. In addition, the generating mechanism of Mayakovski's "political lyric poetry" rhythm should be understood in many aspects, and it can't be simply equated with "meter" in the general sense.
■ It seems that the concept of metrical patterns in different periods in the history of new poetry and its unsuccessful ending all indicate that artificially restricting new poetry has indeed become a kind of "shackle". Of course, the metricalization of new poetry should not be limited to "old topics" such as form, but also involves internal rhythm, rhythm and tone. I remember that in the 6th issue of Star Poetry in 2006, you wrote an article entitled "The Supreme Rule of Poetry", pointing out that the current dilemma of China's poetry is still a question of "how to write" rather than "what to write", and giving an example from the appropriate boundary of tone and rhythm to show that you have some thoughts on this issue. Can we talk about this issue from the perspective of the present situation and construction of poetry?
I have mentioned in many articles that new poetry should and can form its own metrical system according to the characteristics of modern Chinese itself. This kind of meter is exactly what you call an "internal rhythm" and so on, which means that the meter of new poetry can only tend to be "internalized". The so-called "internalization" here refers to such a "Zheng Min" process, that is, according to the characteristics of modern Chinese, the poet removes and temper the prose and superficiality of modern Chinese (especially various daily languages), and chooses a form that fits this emotional rhythm and conforms to the characteristics of modern Chinese in the process of communication. This carefully tempered and carefully constructed poetic form does not attract the eye by external sounds, but shocks the soul by its internal sense of regularity (rhythm). For example, Zhu Ziqing said, "When we read a sentence and a line, what we really experience is continuous, complex and abnormal, many visual or other sensory images, and many concepts, emotions and logical relationships-these emerge in the stream of consciousness. ..... words compete with each other in seriousness, mediating this' web of life' and making it tense, relaxed, ups and downs or calm. " What he appreciates, that is, the poetic function of words, is reflected by an "internalized" rhythm.
In some excellent texts of China's new poetry, the generation of poetry depends on this kind of "internalized" meter, such as "from roof to roof, the wind is so long that we can't hear it, we can't hear it" (Mu Dan's Cold Night in the twelfth month), "Let's open a white flower-"Among contemporary poets, I think Changyao's poetry practice is quite exemplary. The last two lines of his short poem "Ice Age", "On the day of hoary head, I saw the sailors on the shore chopping knives, as if they were reliving their golden throats", are unforgettable. Of course, different poets can construct their own "meter" according to their writing habits, language sense and life experience, and there is no certain law.
■ In fact, when reading the works of many contemporary western poets, I am always shocked by the language and rhythm of their poems. They often dedicate some excellent works to readers with folk songs and formal works. Therefore, can the so-called rhythm and sense of music in new poetry be understood as the "internal complete structure" in its underlying sense? Therefore, it is a reasonable phenomenon to link the image poems that once appeared with the "technical" works on the Internet. Although they can't "generalize" the writing of new poems, can we discuss it further?
I basically agree with the statement "internal complete structure" because it excludes some external and superficial efforts to seek new poetic meter. But I have reservations about all kinds of "image poems" and all kinds of "image poems". The reason is that "image poetry" depends on the visual image of language and is deliberately created to enhance the appeal of individual words in the poem; It skillfully uses the characteristics of pictographs and the function of understanding things, and achieves a certain "shocking" effect through unexpected word combinations or sudden pauses and cross-lines in poetry. This kind of effort is still external, which may cause surprises in a short time, but its shock can't last. Generally speaking, the visual advantages of modern Chinese (relative to classical Chinese) are not so obvious. Because of the unity of form and meaning in modern Chinese, new poetry does not rely on single words or individual words to add charm to its appearance, but pays more attention to forging the "deep structure" of poetry, and even tends to "internalize" in skills such as crossing sentences, alternating lengths and even patchwork poems. This is consistent with the characteristics of new poetry meter.