Chapter 39 Commentary on New Poems

Commentary on New Poems "Grass" by Yikang Baiqing Among the many new collections of poetry published in recent years, "Cao'er" cannot be regarded as the most important creation.In his poems, Bai Qing declared his creative spirit in two places.He said: Everything I have done is right. He added: What I do is right; whatever I have done is right. Do what I am right at will; throw what is right at will. When we read his poems, we should also use this kind of vision. "Do what I am right" is freedom, "lose what I am right" is progress.In the past four years, Bai Qing has created the most and had the greatest influence in the new poetry world; however, he only wants to make poems, not intentionally create styles.On that day, we intended to liberate the poetic style, to liberate ourselves and others.Bai Qing just wants to "spit out what's in his heart freely"; he creates without intention of creating, and has no intention of liberation, but he achieves the greatest achievement of liberation.

Bai Qing was not much influenced by old poems, so the poisoning was not deep.His old poems, such as "The two ministers are still rooted, and the world is not mulberry" (1916); such as "Many monarchs are able to ride the dragon's son-in-law, ashamed that my poems are like a woman chewing wax" (1917), are very unsophisticated.His talent cannot be restrained by this old style of poetry, so his "New Year's Eve" poem written in January 1919 (pages 301-304) has "Go, go, go out! Do you want to do it directly? It’s a strange combination of visiting Puyuan on a whim and walking along the Beihe River in the snow. "Why" is followed by two extremely far-fetched parallel sentences, which is the situation of a forked road.Stupid people still try their best to make their parallel sentences on this wrong road, but Bai Qing jumped on the road of freedom, and then it will be the era of "Caoer" (February 1, 1919).

From "Cao'er" (page 1) to "Tai'an on a Snowy Night" (page 48), these are poems written in 1919. Of course, there are good poems in this group, such as "Seeing Off Huangpu", "Riguan Peak", and "Doubt"; but we always feel that this is still an era of experimentation, and the tools cannot be used freely, which inevitably tinges a bit reserved. .Such as "Looking West from Mount Tai at Twilight": Who will cover the setting sun? Could it be the clouds in Kunlun Mountains? Broken!Broken! The dawn is breaking in Moscow, don't hide the Moscow I want to see!

Another example: Do you (Yellow River) come from the ditch of Kunlun Mountain? The red leaves in the Kunlun Mountains are full of autumn. None of this is natural.As for the mountains, haze, clouds, clouds, and smoke in the middle of the mountain in "Mulberry Garden Road", they all pretend to be beautiful, new and splendid. Now it has become a cliché in new poetry! From "Vigor" (page 49) to "Farewell to Young China" (page 286), there are a total of 240 pages of poems, all written in 1920.This year's results are indeed astonishing.At that time, I saw Bai Qing's "Jiangnan" on "Xue Deng", and felt that Bai Qing's poems had made great progress. The strength of "Jiangnan" lies in the expression of color, and in the freedom to realistically describe the scenery outside.We quote his third paragraph: Two big buffaloes are tied to the willow stakes, and the huts are so paved that the grass is gone.

A very light old girl, carrying a dustpan and wearing a flower veil. A dozen or so goslings behind her, all with red mouths open, followed her and called. The colors are still dyed brightly, but the snow is not heavy. This kind of poetry has also become popular recently.But this kind of poetry presupposes two conditions: first, there must be quick and true observation; second, there must be intelligent selection.If you don’t have the ability to observe, you will make jokes; if you don’t have the ability to choose, it’s just a pile of poems that are not beautiful. Baiqing is the longest in this category of poems. There are many such poems in "Caoer", so we won’t give many examples.

In all fairness, although we recognize the value of this kind of landscape poems, we cannot help pointing out its disadvantages.Poems of this type are most likely to fall into "book-keeping enumeration". "Where are the clouds, what are the mountains, and what are the mountains" are certainly disgusting; "the one to the east, the one to the west, and the one in front" are also very disgusting. People in the Southern Song Dynasty wrote quatrains about scenery, so they are not annoying, it all depends on their high selection ability, and they can pick out the most wonderful impression.The painter's landscape paintings are more meaningful than the landscape photographs. It is also because the painter has made some wonderful cuts. Recently, there are many landscape poems, so there are very few good ones. It is also because he does not understand the economics of literature and cannot choose.

The greatest contribution of Bai Qing's "Cao'er" to the history of Chinese literature lies in his travel poems.Old Chinese poems are most unsuitable for travel poetry, so there are very few good travel poems.In Bai Qing's collection of poems, Ji You's poems take up almost seventy-eight out of ten of the space. This is the first big experiment in using the new style of poetry to Ji You, and this experiment can be regarded as a great success.We choose the sixth song of his "Journey to the Sunlight": There are no trams above the horse back, so we have to walk.

good rain!good rain! Straw sandals are put on boots; oiled paper is carried on the back; patches of rain are pouring straight on the straw hat. Ha ha ha ha ha good rain!good rain! Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. The barefooted woman came over with a smile. The oil paper was carried on the back; the "Xia Tuo" was carried on the left hand; the umbrella was propped on the right hand; the rain was pouring directly on the embroidered red skirt, and they couldn't help laughing when they saw us. We also got more laughable material after watching them. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Good rain!good rain!

After crossing the Xingqiao and the Fukasawa Bridge, we went straight to the source of the bottom of the Otani River. It's our skill not to slip in the river! Ha ha ha ha ha good rain!good rain! This kind of poetry is really good poetry. "It seems to be careless, but it has a beauty that is different from others": this is what Bai Qing said when he commented on my poems. He said that it is American style.I didn't dare to take this comment, so I had to use it to pay homage to his poem, and let him know that this is not an American style, but just a poet's ideal state.

The thirty-seven poems in "A Journey to Lushan Mountain" occupying eighty-four pages of "Cao'er" are naturally a great crop in the history of Chinese poetry.These thirty-seven poems must be read in one go, and then read separately after reading, so that they can see their hierarchy.There are descriptions of itineraries, descriptions of scenery, and long conversations; but the whole article is just a large "Journey to Lushan Mountain".From the 16th to the 23rd, Ji Wulaofeng's expedition is the most exciting, making those of us who have never been to Lushan want to do that kind of interesting thing.Bai Qing said in the second song: The flowing spring in Shanli made loud noises in Qinli Kong, which made me want to take a bath and my heart was so excited, so I went to take a bath.

There are three or four Dutch-style thatched shops on Shitang, and the wind is blowing leisurely and leisurely, which makes me want to take a rest, so I go to have a rest. This is "what I do is right".This is the spirit of Bai Qing and other young people when they visited Lushan Mountain.We wish them the best of luck in keeping this spirit alive in Poetryland. Baiqing's poems can indeed achieve the realm of "beautiful" technically.He himself said: In short, the arrangement of syllables in new poems is always based on the standard of refreshing reading and listening. This level, at first glance, seems very simple and easy, so there are many poets who "despise beauty and don't do it"! However, we sincerely hope that these poets will downgrade to try this minimum standard of "reading well and listening well". August 30, 1922 "Winter Night" by Er Yu Pingbo This collection of poems by Ping Bo is divided into four volumes.He himself said: "Most of the works in the first series are childish works; the style in the second series seems too cumbersome and boring, and there are some obscure parts; Half seems to have changed slightly; the fourth series... There are several poems, such as "Elegy", "A Spoon of Water", "The Last Furnace", which have a commoner style." Ping Bo advocated "strive to create popular poetry".If we use this standard to read his poems, we have to say that he failed a lot.Because his poems are the least "popular".Let's try a few poems that he thinks have a commoner style, and almost none of them are easy to understand.For example, the edge of the knife in the article hits the rake, and the edge of the knife is shorter than the rake. This is not easy to understand. The fourth song of "Elegy" is: There are graves in the col, and there are bones in the graves. Steed bones can recruit thousands of horses; withered bones, the towering Huabiao has no inscribed stele, what do you recruit?Bah! This is by no means a "popular" poem. "A Spoon of Water" is a good poem, but it is not a "popular" poem: The good flower was in the mud, and I took a spoonful of water to wash him. I was very thirsty on the way. He drank the spoonful of water. ... Please forgive me, forgive me! Poor me, I only have a spoonful of water! Although this poem is not obscure, it is not understood by the public after all. Therefore, when we read Ping Bo's poems, we cannot criticize him by his own standards. The three words "popularization" are easier said than done!At the end of the eighteenth century, the British poet Wordsworth advocated writing popular poetry; however, his poems were always only the poems of "scholar poets" rather than popular poems.At the same time, a great poet, Burns, appeared in the northern folk. He did not advocate popular literature, but his poems were popular among the people, and they were recited in the mouth and in the heart, and they are still immortal popular literature.Popular literature cannot be produced by "intellectualized" poets.For example, in Ping Bo’s "Ridiculous" (page 217), he took four lines from the popular song "There are good water in high mountains, good flowers in flat land, good women in every family, don't miss him if you have no money", and translated them into a new poem of fifty lines. However, he himself has to admit that "although there are several (ten) times as many words and sentences, the gentleness and subtlety may not be as good as the original one-tenth."Isn't this a clear illustration? However, Ping Bo has his own good poems.In the fourth series, such as the song "What I See": the mule occasionally neighs, the whip whips, and there is no sound. As for the matter of neighing, the whip would not brush him off. Another example is the poem "Temptation": In the bumpy car, the child fell asleep first. He held it with his small hands and brushed his fine hair, so I turned my head back frequently! This little poem is very meaningful.It's a pity that Ping Bo doesn't like to write small poems, but rather long and obscure poems! Many people think that Ping Bo's poems are too obscure.Mr. Zhu Peixian's preface to "Winter Night" was quite in defense of Ping Bo. He said: Are Ping Bo's poems really difficult to understand? ... The author's sophistication, or is it due to the reader's negligence? However, in the newly published collection of poems "Xue Dynasty", Ping Bo himself said, "After the draft of "When I Turn Back at the End of Spring" was finished, I showed it to Pei Xian, and he thought it was difficult to understand the last verse." ("Xue Dynasty", page 61) It can be seen that the difficulty of understanding Ping Bo's poems is a fact, not all due to the negligence of readers.Ping Bo's own explanation is "weak expressiveness".Although this is the author's humble speech, we cannot but admit that this statement is partly true.Ping Bo is best at describing, but he prefers reasoning; he could have composed poetry, but he wanted to be a philosopher at the same time;Pingbo said. I can't say enough, it's good to see; if you look too carefully, it's good to think about it; the flower is blooming, it's better not to think about what it means when it's blooming. This is exactly what I mean by "going forward".This is not a shortcoming, but we know that one of the great principles of poetry is to be able to understand in depth and in a simple way; the impression (impression) should not be too deep, and the expression (expression) should not be too shallow.The problem with Pingbo is that it is deep and deep in the mountains, so sometimes it becomes tedious, and sometimes it becomes difficult. We can take the fourth and fifth poems of "You Gaoting Mountain Miscellaneous Poems" as an example.The fourth song is titled "First Time": children, women, men on the farm; red and black cloth shirts, blue and purple cotton silk jackets, staring, mouths open, shouting Yes, there are also silent ones. ... It's so cold, it's far away, there are no operas, no games, nothing new; I can't guess the intentions of the guests in the city. They smiled and surrounded us, and we also smiled and walked together. People who didn't know each other finally met. ... Having said that, it is enough and understandable.However, Ping Bo was still not satisfied, so he wanted to add eight or nine sentences with a philosophical tone; he wanted to use abstract words to explain, to "sing" the specific scene in front of him, but he didn't know that this had already violated the number one prohibition of poetry. up. (See page 77) The fifth song is "The Origin of a Smile". This title is a philosophical tune!This poem, if stripped of its philosophical tone, would be a wonderful poem: we ate the food we brought, and we looked at it with silly smiles. What's the joke about eating? But I couldn't help laughing too. ... One of them——she couldn't bear it anymore, and said: "Let's eat less, can I add something to you?" Turning his head back, he said in a low voice, "It looks like our farm there!..." This specific way of writing is enough, but Ping Bo is not satisfied.Under the first four sentences, he added Nine sentences: The origin of a smile is unknown to us, but not to them. When laughing, there is always something ridiculous, and there is always something that makes us and others have to laugh. Laughing is just laughing, being ridiculous is just being ridiculous, what an incredible smile! Isn't this superfluous?He added thirteen sentences after "It looks like our farm there" Philosophical poems of chant: Is it simple? Is it incredible? Is it unbelievably simple? ... Although they are not all ours, nor are they not ours,... When he explained and chanted in this way, we became even more confused.A very good line-drawing poem, sandwiched in twenty-two lines of philosophical chant, is not easy to get ahead! So I say: Pingbo is best at description, but he prefers reasoning; he could have written good poems, but because he wanted to be a philosopher, the more he spoke, the less he understood, and his good poems were buried by his philosophy. This is not to criticize Pingbo, this is a lesson I learned from reading Pingbo's poems carefully.I hope that the poets in the country will be content with themselves, and being a good poet is enough to enjoy the happiness; don't have to look around and be a philosopher part-time. September 19, 1922 "Hu Shi Wen Cun Two Collections" Volume 4