Ai Qing said in the preface to the collection of poems "The North": "I love simplicity. This hobby makes my feelings uncovered, and I take pleasure in this uncovered emotion. For a long time, I wrote poetry under such circumstances. " The sincere confession of these short words is an extremely important reminder for understanding this long poem and even Ai Qing's poems all his life. The most striking artistic feature of the poem "North" is that it is unpretentious and does not hide feelings.
I remember that when I first read this poem half a century ago, the first four lines attracted me as small quotations, and I felt very kind and natural. It is close to my uncultivated heart:
"One day/a poet on the Horqin grassland/said to me:/'Sadness in the North'"
These four lines seem to gently open a door, step into the boundless northern world that I miss day and night, and awaken all my sleeping feelings close to poetry. I soon wrote "Ordos Grassland", and "North" aroused my enthusiasm for writing poetry. Of course I didn't know that this "poet on the Horqin grassland" was a good man. For him, the north is undoubtedly the most familiar, and his affectionate words tell the soul of the north with blood and tears. Ai Qing called Duanmu Hongliang, who wrote novels, a poet, which was also meaningful. Really, in those days, if you can say "the north is sad", you should be respected as a poet.
The "sadness in the north" mentioned by Duanmu and Ai Qing is a deep and real realm. At least in my feeling at that time, it not only refers to the desolate natural scene, but also has a deeper meaning. "Sadness" and "North" are two common words, but once they are linked by fate, they become affectionate calls and have a sensible historical depth. This is the natural language of life, it can only be as simple as that.
Is it the first time in the history of new poetry since the May 4th Movement that a poem is written so kindly and naturally? "Is this the language of poetry?" This question was raised that year.
Yes/the north is very sad.
The poet wrote this poem in a friendly spoken language, which is consistent with his intention to express his inner feelings openly. He can only write like this, even if it is a challenging attitude. Rejecting ornate pretensions, abandoning empty preaching language and adopting vivid, flexible and flowing language intonation are exactly the artistic elements that modern poetry should have. Being trapped here is the most attractive and inspiring for young people who are just learning to write poetry. It led a generation to write such a free poem with prose beauty.
Ai Qing's free poems are not divorced from poetry, but more truly reflect poetry. When we read the first "North", we can understand why the poet branched like this:
"The sadness in the north/the turbulent waves of the Yellow River in Wan Li/pouring disasters and misfortunes to the vast north; /and the wind and frost of the times/description/vast north/poverty and hunger. "
Can only read in one breath, can not breathe and pause, the reader's heart can only beat with the poet's frank feelings. The tone of this poem is slow and powerful. Not only do I not feel like a branch, but I also deeply understand that these ups and downs of poetry are the rhythm of emotional ups and downs. There is no foot rhyme, not to mention the "alliteration" and "waist rhyme" of those foreign academic schools. However, when reading Ai Qing's poems (not just The North), we can naturally read its deep and shocking rhythm. Ai Qing's free verse is actually a highly controlled poem. Its freedom is not sloppy at all. It must have true feelings, artistic personality and the charm created by the poet, in order to present a seamless whole, so that readers can immerse themselves in it and breathe a broad realm.
Why does Ai Qing persistently write a poem in the context of "the north" and "arousing pleasure" in his creation? On the one hand, it shows that artistic creation itself has the pleasure of the creator to create a strange realm, but I think Ai Qing has another pleasure, which is almost a challenger at that time, that is, to rush out from the popular ideas of that year and get rid of them, which is also a pleasure. In those years (from the late thirties to the early forties), some poems had no real feelings, and they only moved readers by empty shouts. There are other poems, moaning without illness, moaning even more when they are sick. They make exquisite poems and masturbate in loneliness. All Ai Qing's poems are not moaning line by line, although there is that kind of deep sadness (national and personal). If you are sad and don't moan, you must have a strong personality (Ai Qing's personality also has the characteristics of stubbornness and frankness). No matter whether it is an empty cry or an empty moan, it is undoubtedly an abstract and non-poetic ideological production. Healthy poetry is always simple, and it never needs to be decorated with solemn concepts and beautiful words. Therefore, writing simple poems in those days was also a very sensitive battle in the field of aesthetics. Ai Qing talked about this many times in Essays on Poetry.
Reading Ai Qing's poems, especially this one "The North" and those short poems he wrote in the north, I can't feel any gap between the poet and his poems and readers, and there is any psychological distance, which forms a direct emotional exchange. For example, writing about the natural scenery in the north is not exaggerated or virtual. Readers really have a real feeling of being there, feeling the deep suffering of the nation and the heavy feeling of awakening the soul brought by the vast land. The poet's last dozens of lines, sadness sublimated into great strength, and has profound philosophical thinking:
"I love this sad land,/its vast and barren land/brings us simple words/and broad gestures,/I believe these words and gestures/live strongly on the earth/will never die; /I love this sad country,/ancient country/-this country/raised the hardest/oldest race in the world I love. "
These dozens of heavy lines express Ai Qing's mind and temperament. The language and situation in the north, as well as its broad posture, are the sad and ancient land and race that endow the poet with the soul to shape this poem. It is completely understandable that the north can influence the hearts of a generation of young people. This is a poem full of patriotic feelings.