Ai Qing
A wall is like a knife.
Cut a city in half.
Half in the east.
Half in the west.
How high is this wall?
How thick and how long?
Higher, thicker and longer.
It can't be better than the Great Wall in China.
Higher, thicker and longer.
This is just a trace of history.
National trauma
Nobody likes such a wall.
What is three meters high?
How much is fifty centimeters?
45 kilometers is nothing.
A thousand times higher.
A thousand times thicker.
A thousand times longer.
How can we stop it?
Clouds and colors in the sky, wind. Rain and sunshine?
How can we stop it?
The wings of birds and the singing of nightingales?
How can we stop the flowing water and air?
How can we stop it?
Millions of people
Freer thoughts than the wind?
A will deeper than the land?
Longer than time?
This poem was written by Ai Qing of East Germany after 1979 visited Berlin. It strongly reveals Ai Qing's angry metaphor about the ideological gap between East and West Germany and his anxiety about the Cold War.
This poem is characterized by free and unrestrained thoughts. The poet wrote that the city wall can't stop the power of people's wisdom, which has profound implications.
Rich in connotation. Continuous rhetorical questions make the poem end in excitement and make the reader fall into it and think deeply.
The repeated questions in the poem write the poet's thoughts and highlight the thoughts, will and wishes of people who can't be stopped by the wall.