Dickinson (USA)
This is my letter to the world.
It never gave me a word-
This is a simple message from nature—
In a gentle and solemn manner
I gave her the information.
My invisible hand—
To love her, dear fellow citizens.
Please evaluate me kindly.
(Translated by Jiang Feng, selected from the Dictionary of Appreciation of World Famous Poems)
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Dickinson was born in 1930. She was a poetess and lived as a nun in Amherst for 46 years. Her inspiration and contribution to modern American poetry is as great and novel as Whitman.
This is my letter to the world, and it is a very representative work of hers. This poem is full of unique personal experiences, profound and subtle. In the poem, she told us that all my words are "letters" to the world we live in. Of course, these words all come from the existence of life and nature, and the "information" given at the moment that makes the soul feel "gentle" and "solemn" is simply and clearly formed in an instant. All these are not words given to me by anyone, but a discovery of life, the most direct expression, sincere and loving expression. The "it" in the poem refers to the "world", and the world is the reality of human existence. Poets comment, discuss, praise and criticize in their works. What provides these feelings for poets is the most essential flash of nature and life. The poet gave these to poetry and also to mankind. So the poet said earnestly, "Love her". Although these are only the poet's own experiences, they are all gifts from nature, so please be kind to them, which is also love and respect for nature.
There are many different understandings of Dickinson's poem, and sometimes we can't reproduce a poet's secret thinking process in words. To understand and comprehend poetry, we need a mysterious revelation from life experience and the knocking of human survival experience to complete the aesthetic process.
(Lin Mang)