Caroline Cather (United States)
Don't think I left you.
Because I want to leave.
Believe me, unless you have to,
Never far from you.
Leave for the whole day
Your fragrance is still on my skin.
I carry your letter everywhere.
My belt can be wrapped around my waist twice.
I hope it can bind us together.
We all hide love, you know?
Is this just because we have tasted pain, because of superstitious fear?
We are inhabitants of uncivilized times,
From primary school, it is self-restraint and fraud.
Hide our fragrant and fragile love.
(translated by Zhao Yiheng)
Caroline Keizer (1925—) was born in a small town in Washington, and studied at Columbia University and Washington University. From 65438 to 0959, Kaiser founded Northwest Poetry magazine and served as editor-in-chief. Six years later, she left her job and has been teaching at the university ever since.
Cather's poetry creation is very rigorous, and every poem must be carefully thought out before it is published. Cather, like many American poets, translated China's classical poems and consciously borrowed the expressive techniques of China's classical poems in his creation.
This song "Hiding Our Love" shows the emotional confusion of modern people. The topic is very attractive.
At the beginning of the poem, the poet used four lines to declare a meaning: she left her lover because she had to leave. So there is a little suspense in the poem, and the reader must want to know what made her leave her lover. Then the poet poured out his feelings after leaving: "Your fragrance is still on my skin." As you can imagine, the shadow of your lover always haunts her like a lingering fragrance. However, this is not just what he left her. Her ideas seem a little passive. And "I always take your letters there". It shows that she has not forgotten him subjectively, and she still loves him. Then why did you leave? Readers are more anxious to know why. However, the poet still has unfinished business. He didn't answer immediately, but deliberately wrote, "My belt can go around my waist twice." This poem is obviously influenced by China's classical poems. Because we will naturally think of Liu Yong's eternal swan song, "The belt is getting wider and wider, and I don't regret it." If it is realistic for Liu Yong to euphemistically express that he is emaciated because of lovesickness, then Cather's "can go around the waist twice" is a great exaggeration. Because I have already explained "leave all day", this sentence is an extreme expression of how the thoughts of my lover torture her. After expressing the meaning of the song, he expressed his longing for reunion with "I hope it can bind us together", and the word "bound" firmly presented the poet's feelings. At this point, the poet has fully expressed her deep affection for her lover, making readers believe that this is a pair of lovers who are deeply in love. It is urgent to solve the suspense.
The second paragraph, the first sentence, "We all hide our love, you know?" The poet seems to be discussing a problem with his lover, which is an unsatisfactory answer and deepens the problem: why hide love? The second sentence is a question. Readers feel that their love has experienced pain and inexplicable fear. But this is not the root cause. In the last sentence, the three-line poet showed his answer: "We are residents of an uncivilized era. From primary school, we are self-restraint and deception, hiding our fragrant and fragile love. " This answer is unexpected, because it rises very high, sublimates to the national reflection on the times, and has the meaning of total negation. However, if we think deeply, the emotion expressed by the poet is real and sad. Isn't it a reflection of the increasingly fragile love in modern society and the loss of confidence in love by modern people?
This love poem is easy to understand, but meaningful and full of modern consciousness. The whole poem is ups and downs.