Author: Cai Qijiao
Poetic style: new poetry
Source: Song of Life, People's Literature Publishing House, 1982 edition, I pray for windy summer and little rain in winter;
I pray that flowers are red and purple;
I pray that love will not be laughed at,
Fall and be supported;
I prayed for sympathy—
When people are sad
At least give some comfort.
Instead of coldly Leng Mei;
I pray that knowledge is like a fountain.
It's pouring in every day,
Not this prohibition, that prohibition;
I pray that this song comes from everyone's chest.
Nobody wants to be a model.
Set high and low levels for all tones;
I pray
One day, no one will
Pray like me! Although Prayer was written in the late period of the Cultural Revolution, it fully showed the ideological and emotional foundation of Cai Qijiao's poetry creation. This poem has a strong political consciousness and social consciousness, and its starting point is a humanitarianism that longs for human spiritual freedom and personality liberation and development. He once said, "Why do writers write? After all, he just wants to live a better life, hoping that these people's souls will be better and new personalities will appear earlier. " His hope for a better future for the world and mankind is persistent. In his view, poets are people who bring joy to the world through struggle. This is not to say that poets have extraordinary power, but that they can create a free and happy poetic world in their hearts and achieve the goal of "poetic life". Poetry and poets are a bridge that connects the intersection of reality and dreams, and is a bridge of sorrow and joy. This is a romantic understanding. It is from this perspective, from the affirmation of human dignity, the call for sympathy and the desire for spiritual freedom, that he shows the spirit of resolutely fighting against all the rights that suppress human nature and destroy life. All this is the ideological background of understanding the poem Prayer.
In this poem, the poet uses "I pray" as the first seven sentences to express his pursuit and desire. This is a direct call from the heart in close social situations. These clear statements contain contradictions that are not difficult to detect, which constitute the "irony" meaning in the inner thoughts and feelings of the poem. "Prayer" means looking forward to something and hoping for a wish that may not be easy to realize. However, everything I pray for in the poem seems to belong to normal natural and life phenomena. "Hot and windy in summer, rainy in winter" and "colorful and purple" all belong to the routine presented by nature; Love is not to be laughed at, falling is supported, singing comes from everyone's chest, knowledge is like a fountain, and endless supply is a common phenomenon in a normal society, or it is not an unattainable expectation. These are just people's basic right to subsistence and normal life. However, when the poet wrote this poem, the reality is that "praying" for things that are unnecessary and should not be prayed has become the whole purpose of people's desire and struggle. Therefore, the more sincere and intense the prayer in the poem, the more it can set off the abnormality and absurdity of the social environment. So the last "I pray/one day, no one will pray like me" in the poem is a denial of a series of previous prayers. This poem expresses the poet's humanitarian spirit and will to fight against absurd social forces, and its depth and intensity lie in the internal contradiction between thought and emotion.