Poetry finally became her appearance, she smeared it with words

Yingxia's fourth poetry collection, "The Glory and Decline of Hometown Love," like Proust's Margarita Sweet Cake, has pried open the plate of my memory

one

For a while, I often went to a caf é on Yongkang Road.

On the second floor, there is a rosewood mica stone round table with orchids, located by the window. Tired of writing, I used my elbow as a pillow, supported my left side, and then switched to my right side. During the 2014 Spring Festival, more than 10 million people returned to their hometowns. This city, like a football field after the game, was empty, leaving only a few fragments. A thin snow drifted in the sky. In a twinkling, the branches of wutong trees and the red brick roof were covered with a soft, fragile white, the kind of green gray color that only Shanghai has.

The hostess of the coffee shop greedily left a meal.

Squirrel Mandarin Fish, Palace Fried Eel Back, Gluten Pot, Stir Fried Little Tang Vegetables, are all signature dishes of the time-honored Qiaojiazha Restaurant. Dessert is naturally made from fermented rice balls. Eating lightly and peacefully, it tasted like a small reunion and a delicious night. Pedestrians on the street look up at the lights inside the window, like an old literary film. Yingxia also likes to sit at her city window, where she can see the street view, for an hour, guiding on the same menu to comfort her homesickness.

Yingxia and Chunzi attended the 2016 Shanghai Book Fair.

The hostess cooked a big red robe and poured it into a transparent small cup, drinking one cup at a time, with a lively feeling of drinking. Yingxia went upstairs and placed several British porcelain figurines bought from an antique store on the table. That was our first time meeting. At that time, she was preparing her first poetry collection "Living Quietly Like This". Just like a Parisian literati, her poetry starts from a window in a city, from a caf é, and crosses the boundaries of a stamp or postcard - "Perhaps, with the changes of reincarnation, I will grow old by the sea in a foreign land. But in the hometown of poetry, I will always be the daughter of Shanghai... I will swim across thousands of rivers, write her down with a piece of light ink."

two

Accompanied by artists Liu Guangning, Tong Zirong, and Ying Xia, we went to Fudan University to attend the Ying Xia Poetry Reading Conference.

The car passed by Song Qingling's former residence. Teacher Liu Guangning said that she used to be adjacent to her former residence, and Song Qingling's pigeons often flew into her yard.

Across from the former residence of Song Qingling, the former residence of poet and publisher Shao Xunmei. In May 1929, in the 5th issue of the first volume of the self published magazine "Golden House Monthly", Shao Xunmei published an article titled "Two Idols", introducing readers to a portrait hanging in her study: "Half body of a beautiful woman," with a dark green shirt and peach skin, holding a goose feather pen in her right hand and placing it on her bright red lips, with light blue eyelids filled with water or honey, and red golden hair. This is a portrait of the ancient Greek poet Shafu. She is Shao Xunmei's most beloved and admired poet, and it was his encounter on his journey to study in Europe.

Yingxia and Liu Guangning were teachers at the 2019 Shanghai Book Fair.

That was in Naples, Italy, where Shao Xunmei visited the National Museum. A broken mural on the second floor, no more than two feet straight and no more than one foot horizontal, directly captures the soul of Shao Xunmei. This is the Greek female poet Sapphos, whom Plato referred to as the "tenth Muse.". Shao Xunmei was immersed in the world of Sappho and bought an English translation of Sappho's poetry. Professor Atman from the University of Cambridge told Shao Xunmei that the loss of Sappho's poetry collection is a misfortune for the literary world and modern people. It is also said that in the translation, one must never see a blessing in disguise, and the colors and music of the original poem can only be appreciated in the original poem. The Sappho style, also known as the Sappho style, is the most beautiful form of poetry. Professor Atman once translated Chinese poetry into Greek using the Sappho style, and he believed that Chinese Tang poetry and ancient Greek poetry have very similar qualities.

When I talked about the past and past of the literary world, Yingxia explained that her most admired poet was also Safu. Sappho was her first encounter in poetry. I can't help but secretly clap my hands - it's a unique aesthetic!

Sappho's poetry is very high, as if "their hearts gradually cool down, allowing their wings to blow down.".

Immersed by Greek goddesses, Yingxia came up with the following sentence:

"Just like this/Living quietly like this/Deeply falling in love with the world/Until the dust settles/The dust cools..."

three

In early autumn in Sydney, a soft breeze flows into the sleeves.

We were walking on George Avenue, and Yingxia hugged my shoulder and talked about her early days in Sydney. In 1989, she sold roses at a bar on this street to cover her tuition fees. After a long time, the bus driver remembered the face of this Chinese girl. Every midnight, he had to wait for her to get on the bus before stepping on the gas pedal.

In a foreign land, the compassion of strangers. From then on, amidst tenderness and tears, she began to use poetry to reach the other side of humanity.

She said that the reason why she works hard to earn money is because she has always had a long-standing wish: to be a woman who makes a living through literature.

On weekdays, Yingxia is not good at words, but that night, her language flowed like a stream. At that moment, I could clearly see that her eyes were sparkling with starlight.

Yingxia is at the 2023 Shanghai Book Fair.

British female writer Woolf once said, "If a woman wants to write a novel, she must have money and a room of her own. Money requires an annual income of 500 pounds, and the room must be lockable." In Woolf's time, one pound could buy a very beautiful Persian cat. The 500 pounds mentioned by Woolf mean economic independence; A locked room means a free space.

Woolf's words are like stones thrown into the heart lake of Yingxia, creating layers of ripples. One day, she sold all her business and destroyed the traditional female image of "angle in house". She set off, stumbling step by step, towards the kingdom of poetry

She used ticket stubs to design repeated encounters

Du Mu's Spring Breeze Yangzhou Road, Nalan Xingde's Houhai Gongwang Mansion, Pound's Paris Metro, Beauvoir's balcony, Hemingway's typewriter, Joyce's tavern, Yeats's countryside villa

Poetry is a lover. She lingered with her lover and said, "How many days did I know? I didn't give you the last hug. It's my lifelong regret.".

four

In early summer, I received a photo of her——

Blue jacaranda, with her head and head in her mind, and her mother-in-law swaying, covered the slopes and paths. She wore a white dress and a collection of poems, sitting under a tree. She met the Polish female poet Simboska's sentence: "I prefer the absurdity of writing poetry to the absurdity of not writing poetry."

So she decided not to go back anymore.

Mrs. Dalloway in Woolf's writing said, "I'm going to buy flowers myself."

Yingxia always says, I want to go home and write poetry.

The world has fallen asleep, the dew has moistened the earth, and a heavy longing hangs on her delicate heart. Her body is no longer there, and poetry has taken her away, far away... So we read her second poetry collection, "Eighteen Moments and a Poem of Missing"——

"My lover from past and present life/You must not age/At least your soul."

The illustrations in Yingxia's latest poetry collection "The Glory and Decline of Hometown Love" are created by Zhu Kaijiang.

five

A restaurant near Guotai Cinema in Shanghai.

Her gaze flickered, and the faint blood vessels beneath her skin turned a dizzying pink.

She said, "Sister Chunzi, I have love now."

So straightforward, I was at a loss for a moment. I am reserved and reluctant to ask.

But at that moment, I clearly read a novel that belonged to her.

She promised that she would write a novel. Love is too vast, her poetry can no longer fit.

So, the trend of poetry was no longer under her control. The tide receded, the words faded away, and flowers bloomed in places where the tide had flooded; And she just needs to wait for the next wave, the next impulse.

"On the steps of the Potala Palace/Glancing at each other/In a moment of unconsciousness/In the vast white world/So you are here"

"The reincarnation of several lifetimes/is to meet you at this moment"

I seem to have also seen the practitioners walking on the ancient snow capped mountains, seeing the poet's sweet and painful tears.

In February 2023, at the EASTWOOD Library in Sydney, director Zhang Huajie and I were reading "Eighteen Moments and a Poem of Missing". Zhang Huajie said, "I dare not look at you, afraid I cannot control you - both of us are moved."; The most secretive and soft space in her heart is filled with her poetry, the world is rolling, and inadvertently, the hair of her soul begins to be messy again - they did not meet at the most beautiful moment, but their feet fell red countless times

six

In the bookstore, I saw the English version of Jane Eyre, sprinkled with gold and silver, it was exquisite, and I bought it as a Valentine's Day gift for Yingxia.

When we are together, besides indulging in delicious food, literary topics often become our desserts.

She rubbed the book cover and said, "I would rather you give me a copy of 'Wuthering Heights'."

In Wuthering Heights, the male and female protagonists continue their love with each other's hatred and their longing with each other's resentment, leading a tragic, dark, and unforgivable life.

The unbearable lightness in life, the poetry of Yingxia, requires the weight of life to measure.

This is what makes the world worthwhile.

In 2022, the New State Council of Australia awarded Ying Xia the Outstanding Poet and Contribution Award in recognition of her achievements as the President of the Sydney International Poetry Festival.

Gradually, in Yingxia's poetry, there was Baudelaire, a poetic prose pattern suitable for the irregular jumping of emotions, dreams, and consciousness. Yingxia Jue Wudao: Sorrow can only be released in song, and pain can only be meaningful when transformed into a higher realm of redemption; Baudelaire's "The Melancholy of Paris" has a more potential power than Kafka's melancholy.

So, Yingxia's third poetry collection "I Just Want to See the World Through Your Love" has a different background——

"If fate is a lonely river/Who will be my ferryman/If life will eventually turn into dust/Who will I be with on the horizon?"

"Don't be afraid of fate/Sad like the cold wind/Don't be afraid of life/Drifting with snowflakes/Through the emerald blue of the white frost/That is the whole meaning of life - true love is forever."

A poetry collection that blooms in the dust has become the preferred choice for many poetry salons.

seven

Fiji, an island in endless waters.

I am reading the novel "The Wife of Paris" in a thatched cottage by the seaside, while Yingxia is writing poetry on her phone.

At dusk, let's go to the beach for a walk together. Returning, the sunset dyed our green shirts red. The moon has passed, the seven stars have set, and I wake up in the middle of the night with a light still shining in the corner of Yingxia.

She is writing poetry. She is always writing. She was worried that the little elf called Inspiration would disappear at dawn.

So, at the breakfast table, we read this poem:

"At the place where the dawn first rises/The world slowly opens its eyes like a virgin/All things facing the dawn are reborn - desolate seaweeds, black mudflat, coconut forests in the wind, and birds with deep feathers/shells that hide the secrets of the sea for thousands of years/also welcome the first ray of light in the universe/Oh, my friend, salute the dawn!"

Yingxia and her readers held a signing event at the 2023 Shanghai Book Fair.

Because of poetry, every morning on the island has a sense of ritual - paying tribute to the light.

"Mysterious Sphinx/Put me in his cage/I am like the proudest Nirvana/Do not cry or laugh/Do not perish/Only the singing of the soul/Straight to the sky."

"The Wife of Paris" is not yet finished reading, but Yingxia's fourth poetry collection "The Glorious Hometown Love" has already been published. I read the flavor of the German poet Paul Celan in the new poetry collection - metaphors, allusions, dreams, and various vivid images - if poetry were a chariot, she would have become a brave horse. For Yu Yingxia, if she gives up writing, she will have nowhere to place her physical body; Rather than sipping champagne or sunbathing on the beach, she is more willing to use her words to answer or settle the burden that history and the present bring to individual life; Don't waste time, don't waste yourself; Not to be loved, not to be loved; Time is too thin, fingers are too wide, and without realizing it, half a life has passed. She is like a planet, running in a fixed or predetermined orbit, with its own laws and paths.

Perhaps she is such an existence - smearing poetry with words over and over again. Poetry has finally become her image.