"[USA] Cummings·There is a place I have never been to, outside of experience" Classic Poetry Appreciation
There is a place I have never been to, outside of experience Beyond experience
Existing happily, there is a kind of silence in your eyes:
There is something in your most delicate posture that can hug me tightly
There is also something too Close to me so that I cannot touch
Even if I close myself as tight as pinched fingers
Your slightest glance can easily open me,
A flap Each petal opens, just like the opening of spring
(touching skillfully and mysteriously) the first rose
Or maybe your wish is to lock me up, me and you
My life will close, beautifully and suddenly,
It seems that the flower is imagining in its heart
The white snow is falling everywhere, cautiously;
Nothing in this world we understand
can compare with your tight delicacy: that texture
With its native color*** Force me and
give me death, forever, with every breath
(I don't know what it is you have to turn on
and turn off ;There is something in my heart but I can
Understand the voice of your eyes deeper than any rose)
No one, not even the rain, has such small hands
(Translated by Zhao Yiheng)
Cummings is an important poet as famous as Lowell, Stevens, Williams and others in the American modern poetry circle in this century. His poetry earned him the title of "Poetry Monster" due to its strong experimental nature. Most of his poems are particularly difficult to understand due to their weird images, unique imagination, and strange arrangements. But his poems are not written just for form. Through the veil of form, it is not difficult for us to see the beautiful and clear outline of his poems. The piece chosen here, "There's a Place I've Never Been, Beyond Experience," is one of Cummings's more lucid and refreshing poems.
Youth, love, and nature are common themes in Cummings' works. In this poem, the author uses his exquisite modernist writing style to express the mystery, beauty and powerful power of love.
In the poem, "you" is always behind a hazy, graceful and thin curtain. The existence of "you" and the behavior of "you" all change the shape of "I". "You" seems to be If you are far away, erratic, "like a flame under the water, it is not easy to meet" (Pound's "Lyric"), but "you" is like an omnipresent and ever-present god, controlling "me" and making "me" "I" is excited, which makes "I" depressed. But this kind of performance is not abstract and didactic, but through beautiful and appropriate images. If "I" were a rose, "you" could open me petal by petal with your eyes. Here, combining "your slightest glance" with flowers and connecting it with the verb "open" makes the gaze visible and perceptible, just like the slender and dexterous little hands. Although these hands are slight, they have great power. The great power of nature has the power to encourage flowers to bloom in spring. "Open" and "closed" express the two aspects of love. Even if "you" close "me" and neglect "me", the pain that follows is beautiful and lovely. Although "white snow is falling everywhere from the sky", you should be "cautious".
The whole poem is filled with a kind of pure love between "I" and "you". The protagonist is like a mysterious goddess, sometimes as close as her right and left hands, sometimes as misty as in a dream. The beauty of "her" occupies every nerve of "me", but "I" am powerless against "her". Like a first-time lover, I cannot grasp this great love at all, and even feel emptiness. It is this nothingness that embodies the mystery of love. In order to illustrate the great power of "her", the author said that "she" brings "death" to "me", but what is actually shown here is the power of life, because this "death" is brought to "me" with every breath. "of. The power of death and life are equal.
In the second stanza, the poet compares eyes to spring and can open "I" like fingers, and in the last stanza, he compares eyes to sound, thus appealing to the reader's hearing , in this way, readers can not only appreciate the girl's dreamy eyes with vision, but also appreciate the musical eyes with hearing. At this point, the poet did not give up, and compared the sound to a rose, and made the beautiful sound full of texture, color, etc. "The voice of your eyes is deeper than any rose" - Eyes (visual, with pictorial beauty) → Sound (auditory, with musical beauty) → Rose (visual, with pictorial beauty, beautiful colors; smell, full of fragrance of). This series of synaesthesia metaphors allows readers to appreciate "your" eyes from different angles. Convincing modern techniques enhance the expressive power of poetry.
Cummings can be said to be an experimental poet to a large extent, but his aesthetic quality is excellent. He spent most of his youth in Europe, which exposed him to traditional European art.
He also participated in the Dadaist painting movement, which deeply influenced his poetry creation. From this poem alone, we can see the influence of painting and music on him. At the same time, romanticism, symbolism and imagism are well integrated in this poem. The whole poem has harmonious syllables and a natural and soothing rhythm.
(Yihai)