The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Su Xuelin saw Zhou Hexuan in a daze, with his thoughts drifting to somewhere. She asked curiously: "Mr. Zhou, are you imagining a work?"

"Huh?" Zhou Hexuan was interrupted and said smoothly, "Yes."

Although she had just been perfunctory by Zhou Hexuan, Su Xuelin was still a fan girl after all, and she immediately said with joy: "What are you going to write, Mr. Zhou? Poetry, essays, novels, or prose?"

Zhou Hexuan said: "I just saw farmers farming and I was a little touched."

"Is it about farmers?" Su Xuelin asked.

"Yeah." Zhou Hexuan responded, still perfunctory.

"I'll get you a pen and paper!" Su Xuelin ran inside immediately after saying that.

Zhou Hexuan was speechless for a moment, feeling that this woman was mentally ill.

It only took two minutes for Su Xuelin to bring a grid book and a pen, hand them to Zhou Hexuan and said: "Mr. Zhou, write quickly, I can't wait to read the masterpiece!"

Do you want to copy that poem?

Zhou Hexuan, who had copied several poems, actually became coy this time because Mu Dan was his favorite poet of the Republic of China.

If you think about it carefully, it doesn't matter if you copy it, because Mu Dan has so many excellent works, including just one or two. Not only that, Mu Dan would also translate entire collections of foreign poems. His translation of "Tang Juan" has always been considered to be no less than Byron's original work.

Throughout the 20th century, if one were to rank Chinese poets, Zhou Hexuan would definitely put Mu Dan at the top of the list without hesitation.

This is also true. In the "Collection of Chinese Literary Masters of the 20th Century: Poetry" published in the late 1990s, Mu Dan was ranked first, beating out many poets such as Guo Moruo, Xu Zhimo, Wen Yiduo, and Ai Qing. At that time, many people questioned this ranking, but more people agreed because the public's eyes were sharp.

If given the chance, Zhou Hexuan hoped to be friends with Mu Dan and dissuade him from returning to the mainland in the 1950s.

Zhou Hexuan opened the grid notebook and began to write the song "Praise" silently.

Su Xuelin came closer and saw lines of poetry flowing from the tip of the pen——

“The endless ups and downs of mountains, rivers and grasslands,

Countless dense villages, roosters crowing and dogs barking,

Continuing on the formerly desolate land of Asia,

The dry wind howls in the vastness of weeds,

Singing the monotonous eastward flow of water under the low-pressure dark clouds,

There are countless buried years in the melancholy forest

…

I want to embrace you with everything, you

The people I see everywhere,

A people living in shame, a rickety people,

I want to hug you with bloody hands,

Because a nation has risen. "

Su Xuelin has written many modern poems, and often comments on the poems of famous writers, and has a deep theoretical research on modern poetry. At this moment, her eyes were shining brightly. From the moment Zhou Hexuan wrote the first verse, she already knew that this was a great work.

When she saw the second verse of the poem, Su Xuelin's pupils shrank sharply, staring at the scrawled handwriting, and her breathing became rapid.

"A farmer, his rough body moving in the fields,

He was the child of a woman, the father of many children,

How many dynasties rose and fell around him,

And put hope and despair on him,

And he spins behind the plow forever without words,

Turning up the same soil that dissolved his ancestors,

It’s the same image of suffering frozen on the roadside

…

But he didn't, he just put down the ancient hoe,

Believe in nouns again and melt into the love of the public,

Determined, he watched himself dissolve into death,

And this road is infinitely long,

And he cannot shed tears,

He did not shed tears because a nation had risen. "

Combining the contents of the first and second stanzas of the poem, Su Xuelin knew that Zhou Hexuan was not writing about farmers, but about the ancient Chinese nation.

"The same is the style of this long time,

The same thing is the endless moaning and coldness spreading from under the collapsed roof,

…

When I walked by and stood hesitating on the road,

I am hesitating, still waiting in these vast mountains and rivers for the years of shameful history, waiting,

Our silent pain is too much,

However, a nation has risen,

Yet a nation has risen. "

This is a long poem of nearly 60 lines, and it took Zhou Hexuan more than ten minutes to write it. When he came to the last stop, Su Xuelin beside him had tears in his eyes, and there was something choked in his throat that he could not express.

I cried when I read the poem!

Seeing Su Xuelin wiping away tears, Ling Shuhua came over and asked, "Xiaomei, what's wrong with you?"

Su Xuelin pointed to the poem in Zhou Hexuan's hand, calmed down and said, "Read it yourself."

Ling Shuhua buried her head in reading, recited the poem silently several times, and said in a heavy tone: "I feel a little uncomfortable."

One after another people came, one after another thought, one after another was silent.

This poem expresses too many things. Through dense and hazy images, it presents new, strange and obscure emotions. Perhaps every reader has a different understanding, but its core meaning is very clear. This is a hymn to the ancient Chinese nation.

After a long time, Xu Zhimo finally said, "Everyone, let's discuss this."

Chen Mengjia thought for a while and said, "There are some shadows of Eliot."

"The style is more towards Oden." Zhang Jiazhu said.

"The imagery is powerful and impactful," Liu Haisu said.

Hu Shi said: "This is the most valuable poem among all the poems written by Mingcheng."

Chen Xiying, a rationalist, suddenly asked: "Mr. Zhou, why did you say in your poem that a nation has risen?"

"Because I saw it." Zhou Hexuan said.

"Did you see it?" Chen Xiying smiled bitterly and shook his head, "I didn't see it. I only saw the four northeastern provinces falling one after another, and even Chahar was mostly occupied by the Japanese invaders. This nation is entering a trough, and there is no sign of rising. ?”

Zhou Hexuan said: "The government and warlords are still weak, but the people have begun to awaken. Countless athletes from all over the country rushed to the Northeast to fight against Japan; countless people with lofty ideals called for democratic politics and resisted foreign aggression; countless people actively donated money for the frontline war of resistance. The literacy rate is improving. China will never be defeated if it continues to improve and the concepts of country and nation are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people."

In fact, this poem was more suitable to be written after the war of all-out resistance.

Mu Dan repeatedly said in his poems that "a nation has risen", which means he saw the enthusiasm of the whole people to resist the war.

But writing this poem now can also understand this sentence from other places. Classic poetry can reflect its power at any time.

Xu Zhimo said: "I think "Praise" should take first place in this writing activity. There is no doubt about it. In the following time, we will discuss this poem specifically."

"I agree!"

"I agree too!"

Everyone agreed.