The South China Tiger (Niu Han)
In Guilin
The tiny zoo
I saw a tiger
I huddled among the chattering crowds
Over two bars
I looked for a long, long time at the tiger in the cage
But never saw
The tiger's gorgeous face
and eyes like flames.
The tiger's colorful face
and eyes like flames
The tiger in the cage
was lying serenely in a corner with its back to the timid and desperate spectators
Some people pelted it with stones
Some people scolded it
Some people tried to persuade it
It ignored all of them
The long and thick tail
is the only one that can see the tiger's face and eyes. Its long, thick tail
waves lazily
O tiger, tiger in a cage
Do you dream of the mountains and the forests?
Is it the exhausted spirit of humiliation that is convulsing?
Or are you trying to lash the poor, ridiculous spectators with your tail?
Your sturdy legs
Straight out in all directions
I see that each of your toes and paws
Are they all broken
Congealed with blood
Were your toes and paws
They were bound
They were reamed out alive
Are they all broken
Or is it a shameful attempt to whip the poor, ridiculous spectators with your tail?
Or was it out of grief
You used your equally broken teeth
(I heard you got them from an old hacksaw)
To chew them up with hot blood ......
I see the iron cage
The gray concrete walls
A bloody gash
Like lightning that flares and stings
I finally understand ......
I left the zoo in shame
In a trance I heard a
stone-cold roar
An unruly spirit
skimmed over my head
took to the sky
I saw flame-like flecks
Flame-like eyes
And huge, broken
blood-dripping toe claws
Expanded:
"South China Tiger" is a lyrical new poem written in June 1973 by modern poet Niu Han. The poem uses the South China tiger as a symbol. The South China tiger, imprisoned in a cage, represents unyielding life and persistent soul, in contrast to the iron cage that imprisons freedom and represents evil, and through the intense conflict between the two, it expresses the poet's extreme longing for spiritual freedom and personality independence. The whole poem has a strong symbolic color, writing the heart with objects, combining dialogue, narration and imagination, and written with vividness and ups and downs.
This poem shows the specific time and space of "Ten Years of Turmoil", which is an era of imprisonment. With a sensitive heart, the poet strongly feels the pathos and suffering, but also feels the unyielding soul of every bloody Chinese and the tenacious spirit of struggle to break free from confinement and aspire to freedom. In the poem, the poet gives this suffering and bloodiness to a South China tiger which has a living body but is imprisoned. By using the South China tiger as a symbol, the poet expresses his unyielding personality and desire for freedom in the midst of his predicament.
The dialog between the lyrical protagonist and the tiger in this poem in the form of inner monologue goes beyond the scope of general aria and reaches a sublime realm where life and life mingle. Two kinds of objects, two souls, in fact, is "heart to heart", perhaps it is more appropriate to say that this poem is just borrowing the "tiger" imagery to express the poet's own heart.
Of course, the tiger is also one of the animals with spirituality, but without the poet's sensible and reasonable artistic imagination, it is impossible to have such a natural and cordial dialog with the tiger, which is originally quite fierce. The portrayal of the tiger is also a portrayal of the unfortunate fate of contemporary intellectuals. The situation of the intellectuals at that time was in fact no different from that of the "tiger" in the cage.
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