[转载]Criticizing Wen Yiduo's A Notion

Your telling mystery, your beautiful lie

Your bunch of golden light, your rebellious why
A bit of cosy significance, a flame

An ethereal voice, what are you, what's your name?
No doubt, this karma is not fake, undenied 

I know the ocean does not deceive its  tide

You shouldn't blame the song, since it is the beat

Oh, tyraneous spirit, you do me defeat.

You do me defeat, with your rainbow so grand

'Tis five thousand years'  memory, there you stand

Now I ask how can I hug you,  hug you there?

You are so peremptory, you are so fair!

    This poem, published in 1927, is often regarded as Wen's representative work of New Poetry and of patriotism. It looks and reads like a free verse, but it is constrained by a particular and strict form, that is , it is composed of 12 lines, and each line is composed of 11 characters and every two lines rhyme, which can best illustrate what is called New Metrical Poetry. It is free, but it is constrained, hence the so-called  "dance in fetters". And the title is anti-traditional because it is abstract rather than iconic. What does he mean by "a notion"? It may be his conception of China or Chinese culture, which he hates and loves, questions and pursues. 

     When Wen came back from abroad in 1925, he saw China stricken with poverty, infested with crime and trampled over by hoofs of war. He was disillusioned! His dream of China as a blooming country was broken.  "This is not my China", he roared. He reminisced China as a tyrant, and then felt puzzled as if it were a riddle, and then he was inspired as if it were a flame. He could not give it up, mesmerized with her grand rainbow and reconizing their karma, the karma between him and China.  He would hug China, a beauty so peremptory but so fair. In another poem of his, he claimed with pride: "I am a Chinese, I am a Chinaman" in spite of the derogatory color the words "Chinese" and "Chinamen"  were tinted with.

    A notion is abstract. But the poet makes it vivid with his feeling, flesh and  blood. The personification, parallelisms. oxymorons, and metaphors contrast with the abstractness of the "notion" and increases  the tensity  between. First, the poet personifies his motherland and addresses her as "you", so the abstract notion is embodied, as if he is standing before his mother, venting his great passion. Second, the poet uses seven metaphors to vivify the "notion", comparing his motherland to both abstract things such as mystery, lie and significance and concrete things, i.e. a bunch of golden light, a flame, and a voice, The contrast and confusion are consistent with his use of oxymorons like "a telling mystery" and "a beautiful lie",   thus we feel his contradiction between  love and hatred, belief and doubt. It is quite natural considering the status of China at that time. But one thing one cannot deny, that is the karma--he was born Chinese, and China, though destitute, gave him life and talents.  He feels proud of himself as a Chinese though China sounds like a beautiful lie and an ethereal voice. But he believes China will not deceive him, her faithful son, just as "the ocean does not deceive its  tide".  He feels himself defeated by the beat of his motherland, given himself to her mystic force. Then the poet expresses what he yearns for. The notion "motherland" is to him a "five thousand years'  memory". Its power, like  a tyraneous spirit, overwhelms him; its splendor, like a rainbow so grand, enthrals him. He will hug her, who is so fair, though preremptory.   　

    Wen's patriotic poems are crystals that have flown to the paper from his pen. Through his "A notion", we see his chaste inner world and feel his Chinese heart beating passinately.

    The translation follows the original step by step, showing strict analogy between. In form, it is 11 syllables each line and in couplets; in content it resembles the original in diction, rhetoric and style.