"Rainy Lane"--Dai Wangshu
With an umbrella in my hand, I wandered alone in the long,
long and lonesome Rainy Lane, hoping to meet
a lilac girl with a sorrowful heart.
She has the same color as lilac,
the same fragrance as lilac, the same sadness as lilac,
in the rain, sorrowful, sorrowful and wandering;
She wanders in the lonely rainy alleys, holding an oil-paper umbrella,
Like me, like me,
walking in silence, cold, bleak, and despondent.
She silently approached and approached, and cast,
Too breathless a glance, she drifted by,
Like a dream, like a dream, poignant and confused.
Like a dream drifting by, a branch of lilacs,
This woman drifted by me, and she was silent and far, far away,
To the dilapidated hedge wall, and walked down this rainy alley.
In the dirge of the rain, dissipated her color,
dispersed her fragrance, dissipated, even her
taiyo-like vision, lilac-like melancholy.
Holding an oil-paper umbrella, wandering alone in the long,
long and lonesome rainy alley, I hope to float past,
a lilac like, knotted with sadness of the girl.
Expanded Information
Background
This poem was written in the summer of 1927. At that time, the whole country was in the midst of the White Terror, Dai Wangshu had to take refuge in the home of a friend in Songjiang because he had participated in progressive activities. In his loneliness, he chewed on the disillusionment and pain after the failure of the Revolution, and his heart was full of confused emotions and hazy hope. The poem "Rainy Lane" is a manifestation of his mood, in which the dual sentiments of disappointment and hope, disillusionment and pursuit are interwoven. This sentiment was somewhat universal at that time.
Works Appreciation
The poem describes the lyrical protagonist, "holding an oil-paper umbrella", wandering alone in a long and lonely rainy alley. He has a misty hope that he will meet "a lilac-like girl with sorrows", who has the color and fragrance of lilacs, but her heart is full of sorrows and grievances.
He met such a girl, but it was gone in a flash, "like a dream passing by", her color, fragrance, "breathless gaze" and "lilac-like despair" All dissipated in "the dirge of the rain". He is still "holding an oil-paper umbrella", wandering alone in the long and lonesome rainy alleys, still with hope, hoping to float past "a lilac-like sorrowful girl".
An important artistic feature of Rainy Alley is the use of symbolism. Symbolism is a school of art rising in French poetry at the end of the nineteenth century, which rebelled against the order of capitalism with the decadence of the end of the world. In its method of expression, it emphasized the use of implied metaphors and other means to express the feelings of the inner moment, and this school of art was introduced to China during the ebb and flow of the May Fourth Movement.
Dai Wangshu's early works were also clearly influenced by the French Symbolists. One of the important features of his creative work is that he paid attention to the ability to explore the metaphorical power of poetry, and expressed his feelings in symbolic images and moods. Rainy Lane" embodies this artistic feature.
The poet holding an oil-paper umbrella, the lonely and long rainy alley, and the girl with lilac-like sadness who floats by like a dream in the poem are not a concrete portrayal of the real life itself, but rather lyrical images full of symbolic meanings. The full content of these images may not necessarily be specific, but you can experience the hazy poetic meaning expressed by these images.
The atmosphere of social reality, the state of mind of lonely wandering, the hope of pursuing but not obtaining, in the image depicted in Rainy Lane, is both understandable and hazy, and both certain and fluttering in front of the eyes. Imagination creates symbols, and symbols expand imagination. The result of such a symbolic approach to lyricism makes the poet's emotional state of mind more implicit and implicit, and also leaves a wide world of imagination, feeling the lingering fragrance and aftertaste of the poem.
"Rainy Lane" is hazy but not obscure, low but not decadent, affectionate but not frivolous, and indeed grasps the subtle subtlety of the art of symbolist poetry.
Baidu Encyclopedia - Rainy Lane