Speaking Nong Xin was originally a speech on literature published by Yasunari Kawabata in Karuizawa on 1937. So at first, he directly described the topic of this speech as "literature", but then unexpectedly declared: I don't talk about literature.
He explained: "The so-called literature is such a thing. Even on a leaf or a butterfly, if you can find your spiritual sustenance from it, it is literature. Karuizawa is indeed full of literature, and people's lives are not full of literature. "
At this point, the reader can't help thinking, since he doesn't talk about literature, what will he talk about? Is this his modest way or his circuitous way?
But he really talked about trees, talked about all kinds of trees, and thus talked about the name of autumn grass in Karuizawa. At last he said, "Is there such a tree in the yard? Can you notice this tree in the courtyard of the Great Hall? This is also literature. " Look, he is really not talking about literature, but talking about literature in another way.
Next, Kawabata Yasunari went on talking about trees and naming them. At this time, the reader's heart suddenly enlightened. It turns out that Kawabata Yasunari talks about literature through trees, which naturally leads to a literary topic. This theme has a profound influence on Kawabata Yasunari's literature: aesthetics of mourning for things.
"Aesthetics of mourning for things" is a literary concept first put forward by director Xuan Chang of this drama. The so-called "thing" is the object of cognition and perception, and it refers to everything in nature. And "mourning" is the subject of cognition, perception and emotion. "Sorrow over things" is a harmonious aesthetic feeling produced by the combination of the two, which is beautiful, delicate, calm and intuitive. "Sorrow over things" is not advocated by Xuan Chang, but an ancient aesthetic trend of thought in Japan, which not only penetrates deeply into Japanese literature, but also dominates many aspects of Japanese spiritual life.
The loss of things is the mapping relationship between everything in nature and people's psychology and emotions. And this is what Kawabata Yasunari called literature. In his article, he described it this way: "People have given trees names such as Ginkgo biloba, slash pine and plastic willow, all of which contain human feelings. This is literature ... it is actually human compassion. " Taking the Green Bar Tree as an example, he pointed out that young people? The tree itself is not literature, but this kind of tree is described in compassionate words and is called Cyclobalanopsis? Tree ",this is literature.
Therefore, Kawabata Yasunari summed up the ultimate goal of literature: "We writers should present a new real name for everyone who lives in this world." In other words, literature should describe and even define everything in nature and even human life.
In this regard, Kawabata Yasunari took a person as an example to elaborate his understanding of literature. This man is the hero of his speech: Kobayashi, a famous Japanese haiku.
Kobayashi's appearance has only one poem: "The autumn wind is bleak and the mountains are exhausted." Although this poem is short in words, it can intuitively show the master style of a tea man. The two simple images of "autumn wind" and "back mountain" outline a mountain living in autumn scenery and the mood of tourists. The aesthetic of "mourning for things" is vividly expressed in this poem.
Next, Kawabata Yasunari talked about the different feelings expressed by a "thing" of tea.
"The sparrow has neither a father nor a mother.
I want to find a playmate to come to me. "
"Antang, empty temple,
Flies play quietly.
Don't fight,
The fly is already bowing. "
Sparrows and flies are very small creatures, even disgusting. However, Yicha also gave them sympathy and love. "He wrote many poems that favor children, beggars and ordinary people, and wrote poems about stepsons, tramps, eccentrics, people with local customs, poor people and rebels." This is Kawabata Yasunari's evaluation of a tea. This is also a world of tea poetry. All external "things" are endowed with the poet's feelings through the poet's cognition and constitute the world.
Then, Kawabata Yasunari told the life story of Yicha. The first perspective is the grave of a cup of tea. He didn't describe a tea tomb in detail, but wrote that people also set up a stone tablet next to a tea tomb. Because Shotaro Ryazawa, whose inscription is more familiar to young people in Tokyo, people who come to visit tea will give up the tomb of tea and visit the stone tablet inscribed by Liu Ze.
This is really no joke. Because a tea life is not much better than his own grave.
"Sigh eventually do shelter?
It snowed five feet when I came back from my hometown. "
This is a poem written by Yicha after 36 years of wandering and returning to her hometown for 100 yuan. Showing infinite desolation and wandering mood. This is also a summary of the poet's life.
I left my hometown and wandered around until I got married for the first time at the age of 52. Life after marriage is also unstable, and I have married three wives. Finally, a fire broke out in his home in Kashiwabara, which was completely destroyed. He had to live in a warehouse with his family and died in this warehouse in the same year.
For the fire at that time, a tea drinker once wrote a poem:
"The fire is crackling,
Fleas are jumping around. "
Such a scene is easily reminiscent of the horror of the Fengxue Mountain Temple in the forest in Water Margin. Of course, a teahouse burned in June, and it obviously won't snow. But from the fleas jumping in his works, it is not difficult to see the panic scene of the poet's family when they fled the fire. The poet's mood is even more chaotic than fleas. Once again, "things" are subtly transformed into "worries".
Then Yasunari Kawabata wrote about his last warehouse and his memorial hall.
Finally, Kawabata Yasunari once again quoted a poem from Yicha to describe his relationship with Karuizawa:
"Lark, so carefree,
Play the three strings at will.
Reluctantly, karuizawa,
The geese flying from the north also stopped falling. "
"Maybe a tea in Karuizawa still regards it as a trip." Kawabata Yasunari wrote this. Indeed, a cup of tea alludes to larks, and Karuizawa, as his hometown, is just a place to stay. Leisure here is not leisure in my hometown, but leisure as a wanderer. After adding "flying geese in the north" to the poem, it forms a contrast and becomes interesting with larks. His hometown is not much different from the visiting geese. The ambiguity of the image between "subject" and "object" highlights the so-called leisure uneasiness of the wanderer. Even when he returned to his hometown, he still didn't find a sense of belonging and loneliness.
"Sanxian" and "Flying Goose" in the poem also allude to the background that Mitsui Ze was originally a post station, further deepening that Mitsui Ze is only a post station, not a hometown that can live for a long time.
Therefore, in these short poems, the "things" such as lark, three immortals and Yan Fei can best reflect the sense of alienation formed by travelers who finally returned home after many years. And such feelings are of course literature.
In fact, Kawabata Yasunari has deeply explored the essence of literature and literature from all kinds of feelings aroused by Kobayashi's poems and "things" in his poems.
However, Kawabata Yasunari obviously doesn't want to stop here, he involves a deeper topic. He said, "There are subtle literary problems."
The word "subtle" can be confusing at first glance. What exactly does "subtle" mean? Is this understanding of nature subtle, or is the psychological process from external things to people's hearts subtle?
At this time, Kawabata Yasunari quoted Matsuo Bashō's poems as an example:
"It snows in the morning and the horses are singing."
Here, Kawabata Yasunari pointed out that "Karuizawa is not only an inherent noun, but also a common noun such as' horse' or' food', and its feelings will vary from time to time and from person to person. In other words, there are literary differences. "
Kawabata Yasunari is talking about the vastness of "things" and the relative insignificance of literature.
"Heaven and earth are infinite and eternal ... behind literature, there is such a sadness. In other words, it is not the plant itself that has a name, but people give it a name. This is where literature begins. This is the eternal sorrow of literature. "
"Lily is a plant sung by thousands of great poets, but it is still so beautiful without being moved. This is an immortal flower. "
Yes, nature is too vast for literature. "Things" are like the end of the horizontal axis. Literature can only approach it infinitely, but it can never overlap or cover it.
As a tea drinker said:
"The bright moon,
Edo beings are really ignorant. "
There is no boundary in the cognition of nature. But Kawabata Yasunari does not deny that nature can be perceived and described by people. On the contrary, he encouraged literary lovers to explore nature more deeply, gain richer and broader perception, and thus contribute better literary works. This is the real reason why he repeatedly said in his speech that he didn't talk about literature.