Text/Dai Wangshu
In an old dusty bookshelf,
I dipped my broken finger in an alcohol bottle;
Whenever I am bored looking for ancient books,
It evoked a sad memory.
This is the severed finger of a dead friend of mine.
It's pale and thin, like my friend,
It has always been attached to me, and it is very clear.
When he gave me this severed finger:
"Save this ridiculous and sad love memorial for me,
In a fragmented life, it can only increase my misfortune. "
His words were soothing and calm, like a sigh,
His eyes seem to contain tears, although he has a smile on his face.
I don't know his "ridiculous and pathetic love",
I only know that he was arrested in a worker's house;
Then torture, then miserable prison,
Then the death penalty, and then when we are all dead.
I don't know his "ridiculous and pathetic love",
He never talks to me, even when he is drunk.
But I guess it must be a sad thing, he hid,
He wants to be forgotten with the broken finger.
This broken finger is still stained with ink.
It is red, lovely and brilliant, it is red,
Very dazzling on this broken finger,
Just like he blames others for looking at me with cowardly eyes.
This broken finger often brings me faint, sticky sadness,
But this is a very useful treasure for me.
Whenever you are depressed about a little thing,
I would say, "OK, let me take that glass bottle out."
[Appreciation of Poetry]:
Dai Wangshu came into contact with many revolutionaries when he entered Shanghai University in 1923, joined the Youth League of * * * during the Great Revolution, and was arrested in February 1927. He was arrested after being released on bail and took refuge in Hangzhou and Songjiang successively. The owner of the "broken finger" may have been killed in this big arrest; And this severed finger became his only "relic", which was kept in the bookcase with great pity by the poet.
After experiencing the turmoil after the Great Revolution, the poet, like many young people at that time, fell into deep depression. The Rain Lane, which was completed almost at the same time as the broken finger, conveyed the poet's feeling of suffering from the ups and downs of life at this time. Therefore, this poem can't help showing melancholy and sentimental emotions, especially in the face of this terrible finger-cutting. However, perhaps it is too sentimental and melancholy, but it is detrimental to his friend's glory. Perhaps his heart is still overflowing with the afterheat of the Great Revolution, which makes the whole emotional tone of this poem tragic rather than sad, emotional rather than depressed. It can be said that this poem has a valuable spiritual quality and style, whether in Dai Wangshu's works at the same time or in all his works, or in the works born in that particular era atmosphere at that time. As for the theme of this poem, it can be treated as the style of singing and sighing in traditional poetry, especially when the poet is in a "rainy lane" period that has not escaped the influence of tradition; Poets, however, did not do this, such as About Him, I Guess, One after another, which were slow, steady and even a little calm, and seemed to deliberately dilute some sadness and add some depth and solemnity; As for the detailed description of the broken finger stained with red ink, the poet used this treasure to express himself frankly when he was depressed about trivial matters, which pushed the realm of poetry to a new height.
This poem takes a friend's severed finger as the lyric object and clue. Finger amputation, as a poet's emotional memorial, and as the main emotional carrier of poetry, is very uncoordinated; Because, it seems that there is a lack of a * * * medium to express the sacred sentiment of friends with "ugly" severed fingers (as for its image, it is not beautiful). Modernist poetry seems to be good at seeing ugliness where others think it is beautiful and beauty where others think it is ugly. Wen Yiduo's Dead Water is a prominent example. Of course, Wen Yiduo is doing the opposite, not really praising a stagnant pool. If the technique of "Dead Water" satirizes the corrupt society just right, because "Dead Water" and the decadent society have the same essence, then the finger amputation corresponds not to what the poet wants to whip, but to praise, which sets an obstacle for the success of this poem. If the description of severed fingers is handled too much, it will inevitably produce psychological discomfort; If it is too shallow, it will undoubtedly lose the main objective basis of artistic conception. Of course, once this obstacle is broken, its success will be rewarded creatively. At the beginning, when the severed finger had to be introduced, the poet skillfully arranged the following structure, and only used "paleness and thinness" to introduce the emotional flow into "the scene when he severed my finger", and led to the emotional transformation through scene transformation. Therefore, what we are facing is not a bloody corpse, but a "resurrected" and living bronze statue of a hero; Next, the poet kept jumping between the memory of his friend's deeds and the scene when he said goodbye. Looks like the severed finger is still there, my friend. The severed finger is no longer a part of flesh and blood, but the whole and incarnation of a friend, which is a symbol of his mental outlook. Therefore, what you see from the broken finger is not only blood, but also the living existence of friends. Especially when a friend said, "Leave this ridiculous and pitiful love memorial to me", the poet deeply hid his lofty desire to entrust his severed finger to his friend, and his friend's mood was immediately pushed to a sacred realm, which was touching and tearful!
Poetry began to walk out of the rhythmic pattern of the rainy lane and approach the colloquial direction in my memory, which is also consistent with the specific language environment and scene of poetry.