Chapter 5 Bei Dao: Bringing Words into History

Liu Yiqing "If you are a boat, wandering is your destiny, don't go to shore." This seems to be a metaphor of the poet Bei Dao.Bei Dao, the poet who founded "Today", once a cultural symbol, wrote the epitaph of an era.Then he started wandering and embarked on a journey of exile, his mother tongue was his only luggage, and poetry was his sword to open the way.Bei Dao uses poetry as a sword, what he breaks through is imprisonment, and what he seeks is freedom.In this sense, the poet is born to be a rebel against the mainstream, a traveler of the earth, jumping out of the anomaly of the system, wandering, and this is his homeless destination.

In recent years, North Island has returned to people's vision, bringing "The Book of Failure" and "The Rose of Time".The former is his spiritual autobiography, and the latter is a collection of essays on poetry translation.Bei Dao's new work can be regarded as the continuation of "The Book of Failure". There are two series, one is about cherishing people, and the other is about travelling.The name reminds people of Lu Fangweng's sentence "The green lantern has a taste to recall childhood". This book is indeed a memory written on the road. The poet's wandering experience is closely connected with the history of China for more than half a century.Bei Dao's experience connects with those of previous generations, and he continues their memory with the sensitivity of a poet.And personal memory, like a trickle flowing into a rushing river, becomes a tributary of history.

In Bei Dao’s article commemorating Feng Yidai, there is such a detail. During the Cultural Revolution, Feng Yidai was sent to the labor reform farm in Nanhuang, and walked past a peasant’s thatched hut. There were a few bright yellow sunflowers sticking out from the fence. In a blue sky.This sunflower reminds Feng Yidai of Van Gogh, his sons and daughters who were exiled in the northern country, and tasted the greater loneliness in the world, and this sunflower gives him warmth.The details written in Bei Dao Ji undoubtedly continue the memory and emotion of that generation.This thin little book is filled with the deepest insight into human nature and the great compassion for the whole world, just like a divine revelation, passing on the light stolen by Prometheus to readers.

Bei Dao reflected in his article commemorating Sinologist Wakeman: The word history (history) can be broken down into two words in English, namely "his" and "story".Whose story is history?The story of God, the mighty, or the historian?In any case, the fragments in those voluminous documents are connected by the hands of historians.History gives historians room for imagination and interpretation, and historians endow history with a personal character.It's hard to imagine what Chinese history would be like without "Historical Records"? The waning moon in the old country / sinking into the deep pool / heavy as those stones / you put words into history / make the river turn.This was written by Bei Dao to commemorate the retirement of Sinologist Wakeman.Is it possible to comment on Bei Dao in this way? He awakened the nightmare of an era with poetry, and used poetry to confront the absurdity of history.He is the architect who puts words into history, and the stranger who "slams the door knocker".The end of the poem is: "Bring the wine to the wind/You grow old with China/The long corridor runs through the spring and autumn/The stranger at the gate/Is knocking on the door knocker."

Without historians and poets, who will light a lamp for us.Bei Dao's prose forges golden poetry into the text, and strikes Huang Zhong Dalu's thinking voice between the lines.When I read it, I can feel the dizziness of weightlessness when the plane flies away from the ground, and also have the insightful feeling of enlightenment. Bei Dao's prose is about people, life and years, and we can really feel his nostalgia.He is a wanderer overseas, a witness of the times, and a recorder of history.He told us some original information about the founding of "Dushu" and "Today": Feng Yidai, who participated in the founding of "Dhushu", suggested that Bei Dao translate the upcoming "Today" into TheMoment, meaning this moment, today, not TODAY, Bei Dao Dao recalled that "I didn't expect Uncle Feng to have a more sense of urgency than us, and pay more attention to the turning point of history."Bei Dao recorded the moment when the Berlin Wall fell in "Recalling Berlin".Countless TheMoments have passed like running water, and I have experienced it personally. Looking back, the vicissitudes of the years have turned into nostalgia and sadness.

Huairen's prose includes not only poets, philosophers, and sculptors like Xiong Bingming, but also Jianghu figures like Mustard. If the sky is not dead, they will all reflect our joys and sorrows, our thoughts, our despair and pain.A seed blown away by the storm, the lonely sound of the train whistle at night; a poet who met by chance, an old friend who met in a foreign land several times across the ocean.People are on the road, and the road extends under the endless sky and flying wings.Bei Dao's overseas travels are exodus in the sense of history and will, culture and rebellion. Poetry and wine, fusion and separation, bumps and turns in year after year travel.Bei Dao wrote emotionally: "Sometimes I can't sleep at night, and I am at a loss: my parents are dying, my children are wandering with me, the country changes, the beauty fades, but I am determined to go my own way."

See how vast the land is, let's go.Bei Dao said.