Under the cultural background of China, cemeteries (cemeteries) often give rise to "ghost imagination", which is mysterious, cold and gloomy. In German, a cemetery is a "quiet place"; It is said that in Latin, the meaning of cemetery can be expressed in more than ten ways, full of love, gratitude and admiration. In European and American literature and China's overseas travels, we can indeed read many works or chapters with the theme of cemeteries. Many cemeteries, because one or a group of great artists, scientists and thinkers have been buried, have become spiritual shrines, directly entering the social and cultural fields and becoming places for people to rest, walk, exercise and even fall in love. Some well-known cemeteries will also design various cultural activities, such as literature, reading, celebrities, nature and other theme cemetery tours, for citizens or tourists to choose to participate.
Regardless of yin and yang, life and death are unbounded, and this shore and the other shore are mutually constructed. In such a scene, the poet Rilke is a listener, a thinker, a self-educator, or a "self-educator" who is intoxicated with listening and meditation. Although at the age of 27, he wrote the famous poem Autumn Day, which is considered to have decided him to become "the greatest poet of the 20th century", he still felt that he was "too early to write poetry". He believes that "for a poem, you must visit many cities, see many people and things, know animals, feel how birds fly, and know how birds open in the morning." ..... It must be with the dying person, it must be in the window, and the noise can be heard in the small room next to the dead ... "(Rilke," For a poem ... ",translated by Luyuan). This just answers why Rilke regards the cemetery as his "school" and calls himself "the student of the dead".
Rilke was really "educated" and really re-educated himself in poetry writing. Rilke's friend and famous biographer Zweig said in his eulogy: "He bravely stepped into the untouched elements of marble carving from the conquered musical elements, and the melody scholars in him strictly educated themselves to be hard." (Zweig's Farewell to Rilke, translated by Luyuan) This sentence is a bit awkward to read. My understanding is that Rilke is always eager to update his own language, language style and lyric style, and he died and finally got the result.
Schools are everywhere, teachers are everywhere, and education is everywhere. The key is that you should first be a self-educator who is used to listening and Zen. From Rilke, I saw a perfect example of self-education: this proposition holds for everyone who grows up (a poet is of course a growing person).
However, I also warn myself that if I think in this dimension, I will often unconsciously enter Walden-style educational utopia. When thinking about how education (self-education) can promote the growth of people (self), we should not stay in the field of self-realization, but also have the direction of understanding life; Besides praising the quality of listening and meditation, we should also show dialogue and open feelings. A complete education must find a balance between people's self-realization needs and life needs, and make them isomorphic. Good education should not only protect the truth, goodness and beauty in good human nature, but also guide people's interest, emotion, will and behavior to develop in a positive and healthy direction, and promote the growth of all kinds of consciousness and ability that people need in private and public life.
Compared with childhood (student days), Rilke's later growth (self-education) tends to be introverted and closed. Just like the peasant women who were severely restricted by the alternation of seasons in the old farming era, they always "weave, spin and make wine in dark and closed places" (Armstrong, Axis Age). This is almost the way poets work-whether men or women, their creation is mainly influenced by the female composition in their bodies.
This is probably the fate of the poet, regardless of whether he is active or not. The occurrence and realization of self-education and its functions that we can personally feel should be our main growth mode, which is the only choice for an adult to maintain a "lively" body and temperament. Poets use it to reach the peak of poetry, and the general public uses it to settle their hearts.
1902, Rilke came to Paris shortly after the wedding. Besides visiting famous cemeteries, he often goes to libraries and bookstores to read books or wander around. Once in an old bookstore on the Seine, he looked at the readers who were "not worried about tomorrow" and imagined such a life: "... buy this full window and sit with the dog for twenty years." He is like a withdrawn, shy and spoiled urban woman, "learning to be silent and tight-lipped in her works" (Zweig).