Frost (USA)
Translated by Zhou Xue
Oh, please give us joy in flowers today;
Please don't let us think too far.
Like those uncertain gains; Let's stay.
Here, in the most energetic spring of the year.
Oh, please give us joy in the white orchard.
Nothing is like during the day, and it is like a ghost at night;
Let's be happy among the happy bees,
When bees gather around the perfect tree and swell.
Let's be happy among the flying birds.
When their voices suddenly came from above the bees,
With a beak like a needle tip, a meteor squeezed in.
Rush through a quiet flower in midair.
Because this is love, nothing else,
Love exists for God, because love.
He can deify himself at will,
But this love needs us to practice.
Frost's poems are full of pastoral style. Compared with China's ancient poems, perhaps he is more like Tao Yuanming. In his poems, nature is endowed with poetic beauty, but Frost's greatest creative feature is his complicated and impermanent world outlook and low tone.
In seemingly beautiful poems, the poet's brushwork is deep: "Please don't let us think too far" and "uncertain gains". In fact, unlike Tao Yuanming, his poems are colloquial, and he likes to use blank verse. That is to say, in his works, we can neither see gorgeous expressions nor strict rules under rational control. This has a lot to do with the poet's living environment. Growing up in the countryside, he skillfully constructed a natural philosophy. He has always been called "the peasant poet of New England", which shows that his artistic pursuit lies in interpreting a mysterious world view about nature with simple words.
Let's take a look at this little poem, which is called Spring Prayer. The image and time scale of "spring" run through the whole poem, which makes readers immersed in the psychological conflict of longing for spring. "Uncertain harvest" refers to the sadness that spans time, that is, the worry about autumn harvest. The poet is calling on people to enjoy the beauty of spring, and don't give up the "happiness" in their hands. Seeing that "bees gather around the perfect tree" is actually a wonderful metaphor in the third verse of the poem, "A bird's beak is like a needle tip, and a meteor rushes in and rushes through a quiet flower in midair." You see, the tiny, even invisible mouth of a bee can hold a meteor, and the meteor will hit a quiet and helpless flower. This is a strange and very lovely imagination.
Looking back at nature when reading poems, many people will think of Emerson's view of nature. Emerson's understanding of nature is quite different from Frost's. It can be said that Emerson emphasized the spiritualized nature, while Frost preferred the naturalized spirit. Emerson can poeticize some metaphysical spiritual qualities into lines, but Frost did sublimate his comfortable natural environment into a slightly gloomy philosophy of life. All this is related to his life experience. Losing a father in childhood, a wife in middle age and a child in old age will all affect the poet's mood. He needs to use poetic nature to adjust his fate that will make people lose hope, and he needs to establish some natural spiritual support to maintain his survival. That's why his poems are full of profound meaning. Similarly, he is deeply loved by the receiving group because of his pure natural pastoral style.
In the last verse of the poem, Frost explains his worldview. The love of nature trumps everything else. Some people say that Frost has the idea of equality and natural harmony. Here is an example. "Because this is love, not anything else, love is reserved for the God above, because love can deify itself to the extreme." Ordinary feelings are naturally revealed through catchy poems, the front of which is supplemented by the beautiful scenery of the New England countryside.