Thousands of messages come to you every day on your mobile phone, which is very annoying. At this time, if you pick up a book of poetry and slowly ponder the meaning between the lines of half-understood words, you will find that there are actually words in the poem. When I spoke my heart out, the joy was no less than getting a few scoops of clear water in the chaos.
This is probably the feeling when reading Liang Bingjun's collection of poems "Thunder and Cicadas".
Leung Ping-jun (1949-2013), whose pen name is Yesi, is a famous Hong Kong poet. He began literary creation in the early 1960s. His first collection of poems, "Thunder and Cicadas", included his works from the ages of 16 to 28. His poems are clear and wise, and he is known as "the shaping figure of Hong Kong literature" and "the best writer in Hong Kong". ".
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Use poetry to explore the city
This poetry collection is Liang Bingjun’s first collection of poetry, spanning the 16 most youthful and energetic years of his life. -28 years old, named "Thunder and Cicada", probably because "Thunder" and "Cicada" are the most classic images of summer.
As it says on the cover:
Thunder comes from the sky,
Cicadas chirp from the land,
This book The collection of poems is inspired by the human heart.
?
The sound of Yes,
Is it close to the sound of thunder or the chirping of cicadas?
If it must be between the two Choose,
His voice will be almost like a cicada, sharp and insistent.
The reason why he chose summer imagery may be because of the abundance, grandeur, heat and bustle of summer. Summer is the longest season in Hong Kong, which is located in the subtropics. It is the most suitable seasonal background for writing about Hong Kong.
Most poems are relatively abstract and jerky, which is what we call "unreadable". However, in this book "Thunder and Cicada", the images chosen are either ordinary street scenes, special snacks, or The author writes about ordinary people's characters from the perspective of a child's curiosity about things, and writes these extremely real scenes into poems, and then "poeticizes" them, giving them a feeling of familiarity and strangeness.
To find poetry in ordinary daily life is the consciousness of a poet.
In "Thunder and Cicadas", we will find a series of place names dotted in the title and lines of the poem, such as "Passing Duddell Street in the Evening" and "May 28th" "In Chai Wan Cemetery", "Apartment on Bavas Street", "Russell Street", "North Point Car Ferry Pier", "Rainy Day in San Po Kong"...
Interestingly, we are not familiar with these locations. .
Regarding the issue of how to express Hong Kong’s urban space, Yesi once said: “We have never written about Hong Kong introduced by the Tourism Association, such as the Peak, Repulse Bay Sunset, and Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower. These are considered typical representatives. Hong Kong. I don’t like to talk about Hong Kong with a set of fixed concepts, so we try to write about it by finding our own ways. I use words to explore a city or a street, but I also create something new. The meaning comes out.”
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Everything can become a poem
I was originally attracted to this collection of poems because of the poem "Noon in Quarry" ( zéi) Fish Bay (chōng) 》.
Sometimes work makes me tired
I go for a walk on the road outside at noon
I see bright red cherries on the fruit stall
Smell the smell of tobacco from the tobacco company
The workers in front of the door were wearing blue shirts
A group of people gathered around the food stall
A child was tied with salt water grass Holding a crab
Taking it to the street
I saw people rushing
Opposite the funeral parlor
The flower stall people were cutting Flowers
On the basketball court
Someone jumped up to shoot a ball
A car drove past with its horn honking
Sometimes I walked Looking at the sea from the pier
Learn to be as strong as an anchor
Sometimes there is a boat there
Sometimes it is a storm
There are only white heads left on the sea The waves
People are unloading
Pushing a heavy cart along the track
Putting wooden boxes and cartons
Slowly Pushing to the destination
Sometimes I stop at the arch
I think I hear someone calling me
Sometimes I look up at a gray-yellow building
Sometimes it is the sky
...
Sometimes I go to the mountainside and look at the rocks
Learn to be as hard as a rock
Life is a continuous chiseling
Too many obstacles and too many smashes
And I am always an incompetent stone
Sometimes I want to soften< /p>
Sometimes I want to fly
"Sometimes work makes me tired/I go for a walk on the road outside at noon." In the work that is difficult to escape, people are in a state of tension and depression. Sometimes it is necessary to escape from the cubicle, go out for some fresh air, and find yourself again, so the poet chooses to take a lunch break to feel everything around him.
The second paragraph describes images such as "cherries on the fruit stall, a child tied to a crab with saltwater weed, workers unloading goods". The simple language expresses the texture of these things, but does not There is too much exaggeration, maintaining a sober and cold tone, and only the last few sentences reveal my thoughts.
Life is a continuous chisel
Too many obstacles? Too many smashes
And I am always an incompetent stone
Sometimes I want to soften
Sometimes I want to fly
In the famous song "Cold Night Tram Factory", the deserted street scene in Hong Kong at night is described through lights, street lamps, trams, etc. "The light is embedded in the cold darkness", with a chill of loneliness, the author is talking to himself, maybe because he can't find anyone to talk to in this city, or maybe it's because of the rapid development of the 1970s. Hong Kong has no time to observe this.
Take "Passing Duddell Street in the Evening" as an example. Almost all the small scenes on the street are described in white, and then they are carefully arranged in the poem. From the "huge wire wheel" to the "wedge against the stone" to the "white wires and gas lamps left by the workers", they are all the characteristics of Duddell Street. The ordinary scenery is full of symbolic meaning, fully demonstrating the The real face behind the bustle of Hong Kong.
"Thunder and Cicadas" is like an ukiyo-e, which requires you to look carefully. In the images of fishing villages, bakeries, passion fruits, telephone poles, yellow leaves, etc., you feel that it is in the eyes of the poet. Everything can become a poem. Perhaps, life is a narrative poem with countless lines.
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Warmth with a touch of alienation
The poet Leung Ping-kuen is a native of Hong Kong. He has a unique perspective on this city with a colonial history. , he calls himself “a city intruder, an observer, and a guerrilla by the stalls in the alleys.”
His poems have their own language and flavor, which is different from the Chinese we are familiar with. It has an indescribable sense of separation, which is kind but not intimate.
The poet describes the daily things that can be seen everywhere around him one by one. His emotions are simple and direct, full of urban fireworks and poetry, but the warmth is mixed with a moment of coolness, which makes it feel very rational to read.
The daily life in the city did not cause him to overthink. Instead, he maintained a calmness between the lines. Coupled with his unique language style, it became a characteristic of his writing. Of course, this may also be the real alienation between the poet's identity and society, and it also reflects the emotional loss of Hong Kong people in their busy life.
The age of 16-28 is really full of youthful clarity and sobriety.
Also written about daily life, using the same line drawing technique, Haisang's "I am a place where you have wandered"? "Let some small things happen every day" seems more cordial and closer to our lives and Emotions, but in fact intimacy and alienation are part of our emotions and are not contradictory.
Therefore, reading Yesi's poems requires a little patience to vaguely understand the emotions behind the line drawings. If you read them carefully (especially reading aloud), you can appreciate the unique beauty of this style and rhythm.
"Sometimes work makes me tired/I go out for a walk on the road at noon." If you are also trapped in the giant network of the city that you cannot break free from, then try to find a gap for yourself. Such as the short-term surprise of snowflakes falling from the sky, such as being in a daze in a coffee shop, or smoking a cigarette in the corner downstairs.
The density of cities makes people’s lives as thin as paper, but no matter how crowded it is, as long as you are willing to take a few more steps to discover the beautiful poetry in daily life, you can usher in salvation, even if this is Salvation is short-lived, but as long as you have a moment, life can go on.
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