autumn
Faaoling
Stabbed me
melancholy
A dead heart.
Asphyxia, everything,
And so pale,
The bell rang,
I remembered
earlier times
I can't feel tears.
I, like a canopy.
Allow the evil wind
Let me drift
Haibei Tiannan,
Like a piece
Dead leaves.
(Luo Luo translation)
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Wei Erlun is one of the most outstanding representatives of French symbolism poetry school after Baudelaire. Together with Rambo and Malamey, he is called the three outstanding symbolic poems in France. Wei Erlun is also called "the king of poets". This song "Qiu Ge" well embodies the characteristics of symbolism, focusing on the use of symbols, hints and other means to construct images in hallucinations; Use musicality to increase its mystery and express the loneliness and sadness in the inner world. The original French poem uses the rhyme of three-syllable lines and AABCCB, which makes the sound and meaning perfectly combined. Now we are reading translated works, which are usually called "the rest" of the original poem, and naturally cannot convey the musical charm of the original poem. However, through Mr. Rollo's translation, we can still hear the bleak Qiu Ge on the Seine: the violin is like a weeping wind, gently blowing off the dead leaves in autumn, and the unspeakable sadness in the poet's heart slowly drifts away in the autumn wind.
The title is "Qiu Ge". Autumn is a special season, full of fruits and crisp days, of course it is autumn; But the autumn wind is bleak and the autumn rain is sad. Isn't it autumn? "Sorrow for autumn" is the eternal theme of poets at all times and in all countries. Of course, autumn can only be the latter in Wei Erlun's sensitive and delicate heart. But pay attention to the autumn in the title, which can refer to both seasons and endless emotions.
Poetry unfolds slowly in the autumn air and the muffled sound of the piano. "Long Sobbing" makes us seem to hear the violin sound from the Seine River, which is endless. Whose slender finger refers to "the secret of transmitting hatred"? "Every string is a kind of meditation, and every note is a kind of profound thinking, as if she were telling us the pain of her life." (Bai Juyi's Pipa Trip) Perhaps, the feelings of a lifetime, the sadness and loneliness of a lifetime are all integrated into this piano sound. However, Long Tears not only describes the long and sad sound of the piano, but also describes the characteristics of autumn breath and the poet's lonely inner world. The violin sound has nothing to do with the season, and the author just puts the word "autumn" in front of it, which has a strong emotional color. This autumn is the autumn in the poet's mind. The poet's "autumn heart" naturally blends with the declining autumn spirit and sad autumn sound.
We may unconsciously think, what music is this? Why do poets listen to such music in this season? This can't be Beethoven. Beethoven is too enthusiastic, and it can't be Mozart. Mozart is too cheerful. Maybe Debussy. The faint sadness and melancholy in Debussy's works can most inadvertently bring people into a distant memory. Poets must feel that life is too lonely and depressed, so they want to use music to relieve boredom and forget the past, forget the sorrow. Unexpectedly, this magical piano sound not only did not heal the wounds in the poet's heart, but provoked the past that the poet had long forgotten. The past years were opened one by one in the muffled sound of the piano, so the poet's melancholy and lifeless heart was exposed and there was nowhere to hide. Is this similar to Li Bai's "selling sorrow by drinking"? "Although the water flows, it is invulnerable, but the wine worries" (Li Bai's Shu Yun, Minister of Xie Tiao Zhuang in Xuanzhou). It's still Fan Zhongyan's sentence: "Everyone comes to this matter and has nothing to hide." Please note that these rather depressing and depressed words, such as sobbing, melancholy and silence, actually point not to one thing, but to the autumn sky, the sound of the piano, people's hearts and even everything in the poet's eyes, all of which are the same color, because everything is stained with sadness through the poet's sad heart. Wang Guowei "sees things by me, so everything is colored by me." As far as symbolism poetry is concerned, the order of language is not very important. Its language is to describe a semi-hidden image, create a mysterious and trance-like atmosphere, and use it as a symbol to communicate with the unrealistic "another world". It should be the overall feeling. To really understand his poems, it is necessary to take some words apart, copy them down and spread them to other places. In addition, the word "stab wound" has the characteristics of a symbolic poet. People have a bloody feeling, very deep and painful. If you change to "play", it will be much softer, almost like blues music.
The first verse of this poem is shrouded in music. In fact, music is the most commonly used magic weapon in symbolist poets' writing. Not only should poetry, rhythm and rhyme be as beautiful as music, but the music that often appears in poetry can also increase the mysterious atmosphere of poetry and coordinate with the rhythm of the poet's inner feelings. In France, the emergence of symbolism poetry and the development of impressionism music are roughly at the same time, and their mutual influence cannot be ignored.
By the second quarter, the piano's deep voice had been replaced by monotonous ringing. To appreciate this poem, we must not ignore this clock. What makes people so suffocated? Everything! What makes you look so pale? Everything! These are all related to the clock, and the clock is the best background to unfold them. In the west, bells mainly come from churches. The church is the final resting place of life and the resting place of the soul. The church bell is monotonous, solemn and unchanging, and how many lives have been ushered in in this bell. Therefore, it is the most natural thing to unfold your past life ("past days") in the bell. Think of the past song and dance parties, think of the beautiful scenery of the past, think of the colorful pictures, the poet does not feel tears. But in this eternal and relentless bell, the color gradually fades until those color photos on the wall become black and white photos. Here, the gray tone permeates this ancient clock. Wei Erlun attached great importance to hue. He said in The Art of Poetry, "What we are pursuing is inexplicable hue, not color, but hue. Ah, only with colored tones can we write love, love, horn and flute. " At the same time, he also believes that "gray songs are the most precious." Here, he created such a gloomy and lonely mood. The past has passed, and today is so pale and colorless. In this autumn, the sky is fresh and belongs to others, only pallor and suffocation belong to oneself.
What can I do? Can I change this heartless world? Of course not! So the poem naturally turned to the third verse "I am like a shed". I am so helpless in this world that I can only let the evil wind blow, and everything is as helpless as a dead leaf. Please note that this turning point is not only about the poet's wandering life experience, but also about his isolated heart! The phrase "like turning over a canopy" may remind us of a sentence by Li Shangyin-"I rode on a horse and left like a cut-off aquatic plant", all of which are lamenting the helplessness of life.
Symbolism takes symbols as the medium, through which people can see another world. When you see "another world" through poetry, poetry itself is no longer important as a bridge to the other side. At this point, symbolism poetry is very similar to China's poetry, especially that of Wei Erlun. Compared with other poets, Wei's poems are less obscure and more clear. Less morbid, more long. Therefore, it is not too far away to read such works by reading China's poems. However, we should pay attention to the symbolic meaning of poetry, the western background involved, and the ups and downs of the poet's heart under the flow of music!
(Shi Hongbo)