Gorky once said: "In our time, if we don't base ourselves on the language tempered by symbolist poets, we will accomplish nothing." But the language of the poem "Serious Moment" is not specific, obscure and straightforward. The success of this poem seems to lie not in its language, nor in its form, but more likely in its interior, and in some mysterious spirit hidden under its language cloak.
In addition, we must also understand that great literary works have the characteristics of multi-layer spiritual radiation almost without exception, and every reader can get his own unique reading from his own experience and life experience. Of course, shallow people see shallow, deep people see deep, and excellent works themselves may not be finished, such as Shakespeare's tragedies. The reason why they can't finish reading and win the love of people all over the world lies in the multi-level nature of their literary space. The masses realize the first level, intellectuals realize the inner level, and cultural elites realize the innermost level. Whoever opens Shakespeare's plays will not let you down, but will make you have a good meal. This is the immortality of literary masterpieces.
So is Rilke's Serious Moment. This will be a masterpiece. Beneath its simple appearance, there is a faint light of spirit and thought. We are now trying to peel it off layer by layer and reach Rilke's heart.
I may not like it the first time, but the language is not exquisite and the structure is so rigid. In the history of world literature, it is rare to see such a rigid poem and such a respected poem; In addition, after reading it, you may feel a sense of mystery-faint fear and pain.
As far as the structure is concerned, the inflexibility lies in the fact that each section has the same three sentences, and the translated words are 10, 8, 3 in turn, and the words are almost identical. However, there are subtle changes in this basically unchanged four-character poem, mainly the upper and lower words. We may be surprised, because we find that these four words are not a person's life. Born in tears, started to grow with a smile, slowly started to live, and then died at the end of life. Moreover, these four words are the basic elements of life. You are crying every moment, laughing every moment, and dying every moment because of birth. The process of time unfolding is also the process of life and death, crying and laughing. Therefore, we can basically conclude that this mysterious poem is undoubtedly about life-human life.
What about life? -write about the loneliness and helplessness of life, the pain and fear of life. And where do these complicated and subtle emotions come from? What shocked you most about this poem? At this time, perhaps our minds and eyes will be firmly grasped by one word-"for no reason"! This is a key word that runs through the whole poem, that is, all the crying, laughing, life and death that run through the whole life.
What do you mean for no reason? What do you mean for no reason? This is fate for no reason! That is the fate that people can't get rid of! Destiny is in one's hands, just like the wind playing with a leaf. We came into this world without permission, and fate forced us to come into this world. What details of time our ultimate death is hidden in, we can't grasp it. All love and hate are like snowflakes, which come unexpectedly and appear on different scales of life.
How many sudden happiness and storms are waiting for us in life? Fundamentally speaking, these people can't grasp it. This is fate. The loneliness and helplessness of life, the fear and pain of life, and all kinds of complicated and subtle emotions in life all come from an unpredictable and mysterious hand-this is the palm of fate!
We are all crying for no reason, laughing for no reason, living for no reason, dying for no reason, and then looking back on life, how can we not feel sad and sad! Therefore, this rigid formal structure originally hides and corresponds to the author's unchangeable and unspeakable feelings about life and destiny.
Here comes another question, that is, which moment does the "moment" in each poem refer to? Refers to the moment when a poet writes a poem? The moment we read poetry? Or some other unexpected moment? Or a moment that contains all these moments? Yes, we believe this great poem, because of its immortality, will turn "this moment" into "eternity", turn a mustard leaf into sumeru, and freeze the moment into eternity. It points to all "this moment", which means eternity. Eternity means time. Similarly, "somewhere" is the same-it points to the existence space of all life, or it is equal to the space itself. It can be seen that this fate is overwhelming, ubiquitous, endless, endless! We can extract two important words-time and space.
Also, who is the "I" in the poem? "I" is every soul and all ego-your ego, my ego, and his ego. So who is this "who"? Obviously, this "who" refers to others corresponding to "I". Yes, "who" refers to others except myself, because all egos are isolated, and only when others exist can a certain connection be established, and most mysteries in the world come from this mysterious connection between self and others. Because of loneliness and cold, our different lives have different connections and are warming each other. It is no exaggeration to say that everyone is in endless mysterious contact with others, knowing and not knowing; Next to it, far away; Locals and foreigners ... the former is easy to understand, but what does the latter mean? In fact, each of us can't live without others. How many of the food, clothes and utensils we eat on weekdays come from acquaintances around us? We may never have expected that our life depends on strangers and on labor. In fact, it is in this connection that we slowly expand our lives and grow old. Then, we get another set of words ―― self and others.
Excellent poems don't pay attention to words, because words are not their purpose in the first place. The poet deeply understands that prosperity is an instant thing, and dullness will last forever. This poem is no exception. There is hardly an adjective throughout ... oh, no, there seems to be one! Where is it hidden? -Topic! Yes, in the title.
This topic is called "Serious Moment", which was translated by Chen, a poet with nine leaves, and also translated into "Heavy Moment". It doesn't matter. We have just analyzed this "instant", which is equal to time, that is, eternity, eternity and eternity. Then why use an adjective "serious" to modify time? How can time be "serious" or "heavy"?
In order to solve this problem, it is necessary for us to do a simple math problem, which is the addition operation of the four words extracted above:
Time+space =? People+me =?
The topic is obviously simple. The answer to the first question is: the universe, and the answer to the second question is: human beings. In this way, the theme of this poem came out. It turns out that the fate referred to by the author is not only his own, nor yours or mine, but the fate of all people in this universe, and among all people, only human beings are not only dominated by fate, but also can feel this domination!
The French philosopher Pascal once said:
"What is man in essence? For infinity, it is nothingness, for nothingness, it is all, and it is a neutral word between nothing and all. His understanding of these two extremes is infinitely distant, and the destination of things and their origins are insurmountable hidden in an impenetrable mystery for him; The nothingness he came out of it and the infinity he was swallowed up in it are equally impossible to peep. "
This is the true state of our human beings. So the sensitive poet gave birth to endless regrets, and this mysterious poem-"Serious Moment" came into being.
It turns out that this seemingly simple and simple short poem hides such a major theme: all our human beings are controlled by a mysterious giant in the vast universe and time, crying and laughing for no reason, and this universal fate hangs over every conscious person like a tight encirclement. Then, how can this eternal moment not make people feel fear and multiply the desolation and helplessness of life, so as to realize the profound seriousness of life tragedy?
This poem is actually a very philosophical poem, full of absurdity and alienation of existentialism, a kind of mental anxiety, and an inquiry into the ultimate meaning. Influenced by Rilke, Mr. Feng Zhi, a famous poet in China, also wrote many poems with similar themes, especially his famous collection of poems Sonnets, including "We Walk a Road Every Day" written in 194 1 year. The conclusion is:
"Don't think everything is familiar.
Touch your hair and skin when you die.
I have a question: whose body is this? "
You see, in just a few words, the philosophy of poetry has been raised to the same height as philosophy, echoing the inscription on the temple of the ancient Greek sun god: know yourself.
Therefore, in the field of poetics, some people say that philosophy cannot be integrated into poetry. I think this is the prejudice of some people and an excuse for some people to be lazy.
It should be said that poetry, as a way to explore the inner world of human beings, has the same effect as philosophy, and philosophical poetry is more convenient than rational thinking when excavating mysterious and unknown things. The birth of Rilke, Tagore, Ji Bolun and others directly prospered philosophical poetry. Almost every poem of theirs brings us endless reverie and thinking.
Finally, I must emphasize again:
First, reading poetry is very important. Poetry is the core of literature. Reading poems not only cultivates our pure spiritual interest, but also avoids countless grievances for literature.
Second, reading poetry should be based on the feelings of life experience, mobilize all our experiences and intuition to cut into every detail of poetry, and let us feel the unexpected secrets of many great poems;
Third, when reading poems, you must read the best poems in the world. Bad poetry not only destroys taste, but also poisons the soul, and its crime should be punished. Only good poetry can constantly open our hearts, hear wonderful music and fragrance, and then lead our hearts to all the depths that can be touched.
In this case, maybe our life will probably create a beautiful soul for ourselves.