Translation: True Thoughts
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< p> 200About the author:
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Indian poet, writer, social activist Home, philosopher and Indian nationalist. His representative works include "Gitanjali", "Birds", "Sand in the Eyes", "Four People", "Family and the World", "The Gardener", "New Moon", "The Last Psalm", "Gola" ”, “The Crisis of Civilization”, etc.
On May 7, 1861, Rabindranath Tagore was born into a wealthy aristocratic family in Calcutta, India. He was able to compose long poems and ode-style poems at the age of 13. He went to England to study in 1878 and returned to China in 1880 to specialize in literary activities. He served as the secretary of the Vatican Society from 1884 to 1911, and founded the International University in the 1920s. In 1913, he became the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature for "Gitanjali". In 1941, he wrote "The Crisis of Civilization", his last words indicting British colonial rule and believing that the motherland would be independent and liberated.
Tagore's poetic style had a major impact on modern Chinese literature, inspiring a generation of literary giants such as Guo Moruo, Xu Zhimo, and Xie Wanying. Many of his works have been translated into Chinese many times. Tagore's "The Birds" influenced Bing Xin, which led her to write "Stars and Spring Water".
Introduction to "The Birds":
This is a collection of poems written by Rabindranath Tagore, first published in 1916. This collection of poems includes 325 untitled poems. The basic themes are mostly extremely common things, such as grass, fallen leaves, birds, stars, rivers, etc. Most of the poems have only one or two lines, either capturing a natural landscape or telling a story. The collection of poems has no obvious logical structure or clear center. It is just a record of fragments of the poet's feelings, thoughts, and emotions in his daily life.
Because the poet is loyal to his own thoughts, has a keen insight into nature and society, and a wonderful pen that is good at expressing his heart, these short poems that look like a few words contain rich thoughts, profound philosophies, and express Create a fresh, lively, graceful and timeless style. "The Collection of Flying Birds" has been translated into multiple language versions around the world, playing a role in promoting the emergence and development of China's "Little Poetry Movement".
Creation background
"The Collection of Birds" was created in 1913, and the first edition was completed in 1916. Part of "The Collection of Birds" was translated by the poet from his collection of Bengali aphoristic poems "The Collection of Broken Jade" (1899), and the other part was the poet's improvised English poems when he visited Japan in 1916. The poet stayed in Japan for more than three months, and ladies constantly asked him to inscribe fans or commemorative books. The poet once praised the simplicity of Japanese poems, and his "Asuka Collection" was obviously influenced by this poetic style.
"The Collection of Birds" expresses the deep spiritual pursuit - the ultimate principle of the universe or God of love and harmony. It depicts the spiritual (divine) interconnection and organic unity of all things in nature, showing the relationship between man and nature, love and The closeness and interaction of God praise the freedom, equality and fraternity of life - thus generating a rich and timeless philosophy of life. Here the boundaries between God, nature, man and love have been blurred. The poet pursues the unity of man and God, the relationship between love and God, and the unity of God and nature, and longs for the image of "complete unity with God" to appear. ", that is, to achieve the unity of finite life and infinite life, and to achieve the highest ideal state of human beings. To this end, the poem reveals that people must perfect their personality, "get rid of hypocrisy in their thoughts", drive away "all the ugliness" in their hearts, and can only communicate with each other in "love" and "love service" God combines. The poet expresses the dedication of life and the pursuit of the meaning of life in the poem, making the poem full of vitality.
Since the poet's philosophy of life is not perfect, he is powerless on the issue of the ultimate unity of finite life and infinite life. He has no choice but to use moral self-improvement and "theory of pan-love" to achieve unity. To achieve the perfection of life and to achieve the realization of social ideals.
Artistic Features
Tagore paid great attention to the description of nature in "Birds". A bird, a flower, a star, a raindrop, all have human nature. and vitality. He loved all nature. He believes that there is an inherent connection between human emotions and natural forces, or nature is integrated into human emotions, or human emotions are integrated into nature. Only by integrating into nature can you purify your life. Nature not only provides suggestive images, but also actively assists us in erasing all traces of separation in human life; lovers may separate, and this separation will be submerged beneath the green grass and flowers that laugh in the sun. Reading his works makes people feel that the activities of the universe and the changes in life are meaningful and happy, which gives them endless courage.
In the poem, he also gave "the meaning of morning". "The arrival of each morning is not a trivial matter repeated in endless monotony, but a kind of eternal surprise. Because it is an important force in the drama of the victory of light over darkness, and the victory of freedom over constrained life. episode.
For example, song 235, "Don't say 'this is morning' and dismiss it in the name of yesterday. Treat it like a newborn, unnamed baby you see for the first time." Another example is song 32, "God His own morning is also novel in his own eyes. "
The poet does not write about nature for the sake of nature. The nature here is consistent with people. Describing the vast and vast natural world is actually to give human nature great freedom. Birds flying in the sky imply the great freedom that human beings desire but cannot reach. However, the wings of returning birds in the dusk remind the poet of the unstoppable power of human love. "Stars are also a symbol of freedom, love and joy; they are like flowers blooming in heaven, and they seem to be silently reciting God's own beautiful music."
The basic themes of "The Birds" are mostly extremely common plants , nothing more than grass, flowing fireflies, fallen leaves, birds, mountains, rivers, etc. Reading these poems is like opening the bedroom window on an early summer morning after a heavy rain and seeing an indifferent and clear morning. The usually weak creek became unreasonably majestic, speeding up its pace and humming a loud song; the sunlight fell on the leaves hanging with water droplets, and the water droplets looked particularly bright, and the brightness made the leaves look like one. A transparent color; the flat grass seems to have absorbed enough oil paint, watch out whether the jumping squirrels will also be stained with this bright green oil paint; there are a few white clouds flying in the sky, as if they are recalling the carnival last night; everything is It's so fresh and bright, but the flavor is very rich and intriguing. It expresses profound philosophy in light sentences, which is why "The Birds" is so attractive.
Influence of the work
Rabindranath Tagore's "The Birds" had a great influence on the modern Chinese poetry world. After the publication of "The Birds" translated by Zheng Zhenduo, the informal poems in the poetry world Very popular. The female poet Xie Bingxin once said in the preface to her collection of poems "Stars" that her poems were influenced by Rabindranath Tagore.
Evaluation of the work
Rabindranath Tagore's "Birds". It has been 92 years since the book was written, and reading it now is still like a magnificent sunrise. The philosophical thoughts emanating from the book are like enlightenment and enlightenment.
--------Historian, writer, political commentator Li Ao