不拘一格降文才, 读方先生诗有感

不拘一格降文才

昨夜读方先生 Deprivation （剥夺）  诗人通过描写还没见到绿的春天，雪还顽固不肯融化， 潮湿的肮脏的地面，还有洛阳牡丹节等等意象烘托主题。他回忆，想念与当年的军校学生们一起的情景， 和学生们一起种植Sungua（我不知道是什么，应该是一种植物）, 然后卖给食堂的情景。诗人着重回忆Zhou  Jianya，这个正直的高个子和一个政委，那时还少有不正之风，虽然有高官特别照顾女学员，给她们好工作，条件是她得做他儿媳妇。然后诗人提到现在已经被禁止的大字报和小字报，外国人对中国人的印象，诗人对一些较挑剔的学生的印象。 诗人层层递进，然后从回忆里峰回路转，回到了现实中，以一句“I am not a Chinese. I am anonymous and shapeless. I do not exist”作全诗的结束语。诗人留给读者的问题是：Deprivation，到底谁被谁剥夺了什么？ 读者发挥想象。 诗人对自己作品的评价：他说他开始是在写诗，但后来就不像了，整首诗的灵感是被最后一句所激发的。我对这首诗的评论： 非常好，我喜欢你的风格。我说【草叶集】作者Walt Whiteman也是不拘一格的发挥才智，你也可以，甚至做得比他好。“I like your style.  I understand what you said.
Walt Whiteman was a poet abandoned the regular meter and rhyme patterns of his contemporaries. So do you. Even better.  The last line is interesting, quite ironic. You said that your are not a Chinese you are shapeless, you don't  exist, but in fact you are, everybody knows that you are a Chinese.  Obviously, this is just a writing technique, and your readers are impressed that you (the speaker) is not afraid of being deprived. ”   
               
        方先生原诗：            
"It is spring time and yet I see no green
The snow of last year stubbornly stays on
Wetting ground with dirty streams that in a storm
Turns into ice, just like the running nose of a kid
Who plays outside in deep winter

It is flower time in Luoyang, the peonies
Mingle with rural dust brought by peasants
Who swarm into parks, streets, buses and markets
Who find some time free from tending their fields
To enjoy the yearly peony fair with city people

I remember the first year there, we went to the King's Town Park
And took a picture under a pine, the whole class, 23 cadets I guess
Not knowing later, some will be in north America
Burying their memories into the strife and struggle for life
Carving out a new niche in this capitalist world
In New York, in Toronto, in California. in Harvard, in maritime Canada
Linked by e-mail and the same native land where our ancestors
Ploughed and fought

We ploughed too, though not with cattle, and planted "Sungua"
That we sold to the cadets canteen at 3 cents a jin(500g)
We watered our common filed, from a centrally managed electric well
And we brought manure to the fields, pulling the two-wheeled cart

Zhou  Jianya was our platoon leader, a nice soldier, a good man
A rare piece of antiquity if in today's China, at least not corrupted
I miss him a lot and the political commissar, the tall, upright guy
We heard rarely backdoor then, though someone higher in rank
Did try to give a female cadet better job, if she should marry his son
And  got exposed by her classmates, with a big-character poster

Such posters are banned now by the law, THE LAW
Because they are too democratic in a country where
Public speech  is beautifully regulated, even a lost-and-found
Note, With some cartoonist tone of complain, can be termed as
Small-character poster. I miss big-character-posters, man

It seems however, most Chinese who were revolutionary
Are acquiescent abroad, Never care about what's going on around
Students, some, are critical, but only of a far-away opponent,
Advocating from a safe distance, something impressive
That can bring history to their names which they make sure
To appear before others in conference news

I am not a Chinese. I am anonymous and shapeless. I do not exist

说明：

When I wrote the poem, I started like I am writing a poem and then my
thoughts drifted. All that goes on is triggered by the last line of
the previous stanza. I knew structurally speaking it is not poem at
all. I recalled old days in the army and sent the poem to a former
classmate in California.  "


天公精神重抖擞，不拘一格降文才。方先生才思敏捷，倚马挥毫，好诗！小曼不才，可能理解不透（譬如小字报的作用。这些具有时代特色的东西跟Lost And Found，我联系不上，难道丢失东西也要写个大字报？Anyway，先这样）

P.S.今天早上起来后打开电脑，看到方先生在越华写作室高歌一曲I have an appointment with the grassland，我灵机一动，自作聪明留了一句，我说方先生应该把Grassland改成Girlfriend（压了头韵和未韵），这样就变成：我和我女友有个约会， 并祝他新年桃花好运（现在全世界的越华才女美女们都读懂了我的话。方先生有麻烦了。）

 

方壶斋教授名诗【题越南美女图】在越华文坛名噪一时：

https://www.backchina.com/blog/358517/article-241338.html

Feb.18,2016.
文/刘小曼 (匆匆）