The Inheritance and Development of New Poetry
—On the application of chain repetition to the new metrical poetry
By Angela Ren
In his research of the development of the new metrical poetry, Professor Xu Ting stated that after the new poetry came into being, it went through a wrong stage. Firstly, it denied the old poetry and considered it as an enemy. The new poetry believed that it was revolutionary, progressive and modern, while the old was backward, conservative and should be rejected. Thus there appeared a crack between the old and the new which rendered the new to be so unconstrained that the tradition could not be absorbed, inhibiting the development of the new metrical poetry。
New poetry should learn how to be precise and concise from old poetry, and metrical rhymes should draw on how to be explicit and bold from new poetry. Poems, whether new or old, should introduce artistic renovations as time goes. Without imagination and freedom, poems cannot be entitled to modern poetry; without tonal patterns and coherence, poems cannot be considered as metrical poetry. As a result, we should not employ one poetical meter to deny others. The renovations of poetry should allow the contention of hundreds of thoughts, rendering various flowers to bloom together. The poetical meter of new poetry should carry on developing based on the traditional rules, which requires more poets to create and study. The author here is to discuss about the application of chain repetition to new poetry.
A brief introduction to chain repetition
Chain repetition, also called anadiplosis, refers to repeating the same words or Chinese characters of a preceding line as the beginning of the following line to connect two lines. It is a common antithetical method, representing the features of Chinese. It is also a figure of speech and a pattern of poetry.
Chain repetition is a figure of speech. A straight repetition is also called connection or anadiplosis. It is called repetition and connection for emphasis, a genre of chain repetition. What is it after all? As Mr. Wang Jisi said, chain repetition is a word play in which the last word of the first sentence overlaps the first word of the next sentence. Mrs. Wu Xiaoling and Mr. Zhu Juyi hold similar views. Mr. Gu Zhaocang elaborates that it is a Chinese character system featuring playfulness in the Song and Yuan Dynasties.
Chain repetition is employed to make structures compact, sentences coherent and concatenations melodious, releasing relations or progressions between things.
Inter-repetition, also called anadiplosis, is a kind of concatenation and a term of chain repetition which repeats assonant words in the middle of lines or overlaps two sentences. Like stringing pearls, it creates a continued link upon the inherence relations, hence a melody.
Chain repetition is used to enhance the sense of rhythm, making poems intriguing.
Chain repetition is also used in a kind of poetry, a rhetorical device treating the end of the first line as the beginning of the next one which is interlocking and forming a coherent whole.
chain repetition is not only used in poems but also in xiaoling(folk tunes).
Red Peach Blossoms•Love, a short lyric in the Yuan Dynasty, narrates a loyal love story of a young lady. With the application of the chain repetition, lines interlace with lines showing the passion and flame of the heroine. Chain repetition is used to produce a compact structure and catchy melodies.
The wide application of chain repetition to new poetry
Sestet for Fun by myself
A Sestet for Fun
Tr. Zhao Yanchun
So cold, it’s such a cold day
The moon does her care display
And covers the night with ray
So cold, it’s such a cold day
He does the romance lyre play
And weaves a crown for the fay
The sestet is elegant and fresh. The second line starts the same with the end of the first one which well combines sound and prosody, and achieves harmony in sound and affection, strengthening the artistic attraction.
The Song of Daisy by Wang Duancheng
Garland is a peculiar and rigorous kind of genre in sonnet. It is a set composed of 15 sonnets, among which 14 sonnets are applied chain repetition that is the final line of the preceding poem is repeated the first line of the succeeding one, while the 15th poem is comprised of the first line of 14 previous ones. It is not so difficult to compose a sonnet, but the hard nut is to achieve the effect of such a voluminous set featuring the final line of the previous poem as the first line of the next one which is interlocking and intriguing
Mr. Wang Duancheng is a poet advocating the new metrical poetry. He believes that only when rules of the new metrical poetry are formed, can new poetry develop on the right track, lead the trend of poems and become a dominating genre of poems as a forerunner. For there are many comments on Mr. Wang’s garland, here the author skips the analysis of the sonnet.
New metrical poems by myself
Love of Butterflies
Tr. Zhao Yanchun
In former life you in a cocoon yourself bound,
Bound tight for a hundred decades.
A hundred decades your oath remains sound;
Sound and soundly, you see great seas turn into everglades.
At present time chic butterflies you have become,
Become lovers that fondly fly,
Fly fondly for an aeon and then some,
some myriads of years, no, ever, even though seas run dry.
With the exception of the first lines of two stanzas, all lines are rhymed with “an” (Chinese phonetic script), creating an antithesis in a balanced structure. Mr. Zhang Xianfeng, a poet famous for metrical poetry says, “The poem embodies a unique kind of poetry, carrying on traditional use of chain repetition which produces an elegant and fresh melody.” Professor He Gongjie speaks highly of the poem, “Love of Butterflies enjoys a plain and common style of language (I have advocated to use such language to create new poetry.) and images which are novel and fresh. The application of chain repetition, which Angela Ren employs in proper place, injects more vitality into the poem and enhances the appealing to readers.” While appreciating the poem, Mr. He translated it by himself, and then Professor Zhao Yanchun, giving his version as shown above, further translated it and better conveyed its beauty and prosody. They make the butterflies flying in the filed of translation. Hence this is how the octet as a new metrical rhyme shows an aesthetic sense of poetry.
Chain repetition is applied to express the author’s mind directly, or to melt emotions with narrations and descriptions.
A Thousand Years' Wait
Tr. Zhao Yanchun
Calmly, I wait
Wait for a leaf of little canoe
A little canoe goes upstream
upstream for a one thousand years' wait, never due
Calmly, I bide
Bide for the hunter from Southern Land
The hunter from Southern Land rides back
Rides back for a one thousand years' bide, a lone stand
As an octet, the poem is rhymed with “ou” aside from the third lines, boasting an antithesis in a balanced structure.
Chain repetition is also introduced to palindromes in metrical rhymes.
Take the author’s poem for instance.
The Melody in the East
In Reply to Mr. Zhang Xianfeng
Tr. Zhao Yanchun
All over the sky the air of song is dispersed
Dispersed the melody in the east does resound
Resound the poems of flowers that everywhere burst
Burst the buds that give off their aroma around
Burst the buds that give off their aroma around
Resound the poems of flowers that everywhere burst
Dispersed the melody in the east does resound
All over the sky the air of song is dispersed
The poem in reply not only inherits the style of the original one, but also employs chain repetition.
Mr. He Gongjie, a high-profile translator, extols that the winding path (author’s user name) creates a good palindrome and well use the chain repetition.
Chain repetition can be flexibly used in new metrical poetry.
Take the author’s poem for example.
I thirst
Thirst for the spring flowers to burst
To burst with balm all over the hill
All over the hill a love song we trill
I yearn
Yearn for the summer's sun to burn
Burn up with radiance all over the world
All over the world we leap like flags twirled
I crave
Crave for wafts of fruit scent to wave
Scent to wave will bring us a golden beam
A golden beam weaves our lovely dream
I long
Long for the winter warm with birds' song
Birds' song is filled with a foot of sun ray
A foot of sun ray lights up our happy lay
Chain repetition is flexibly used in the middle of the two stanzas and changes a little to achieve a smooth and superb melody. The palindrome is rhymed with “ang”.
Mr. Zhang Xianfeng remarked that, “modern elements are added to the poem on the basis of chain repetition. The shining point of the poem lies in the flexible use of chain repetition which gives birth to a sense of beauty.”
Innovations based on the inheritance of old poetry will lead a track to develop new poetry.
Modern poets imitate traditions of old poetry or load with fancy phrases to create poems, or to be free from rules to compose. Some observers even employ one poetical meter to deny others, which will fall into fallacy.
Indeed, some friends have questioned my new metrical poetry applied to chain repetition. Some say that the application of chain repetition to poetry destroys the meaning of poems and some state that chain repetition keeps poems in fetters. Whatever the comments are, the author is just pursuing the poetic dream while trying to create new metrical poetry. As a saying goes, “If you want to know the taste of a pear, then you must try it yourself.”
To sum up, many poets separate new poetry from old poetry, abandoning the inheritance and tradition of poetry. Innovations based on the inheritance and tradition of poetry will lead a right track to develop new poetry.
(Tr. Zhang XinYa ; Proofread by zhaoyanchun)
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发表于 2012-7-21 16:32:12
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