In contemporary American poetry circles, when it comes to poets deeply influenced by Buddhism and Zen, besides gary snyder, allen ginsberg and other famous poets, Jane Hursfield, a poetess born in 1953, is also a poet deeply influenced by Buddhism and Zen. Up to now, seven books of poetry have been published, such as October Palace: Poetry, Life in the Heart: Poetry, Sugar and Salt: Poetry, Coming Thief 20 1 1. Published a collection of essays "Nine Doors: Entering the Artistic Conception of Poetry", and translated and published a collection of love poems "Dark Moon" by Japanese modern romantic poetess Xiao Ye Nokumachi and Izumi Jiubu. Hursfield was shortlisted for the National Book Award and the T.S. Eliot Poetry Award, and won the Poetry Center Book Award and the California Book Award. As a communicator of Chinese and western poetry, Jane Hursfield is called "Metaphysical Poet" because of her unique philosophical and artistic temperament in her poems, and has always been regarded as the representative of contemporary American poets.
Hursfield's poems are short and pithy, with natural images and life images as the theme, which embodies the poet's keen insight and instant inspiration. Luo Shana Warren, a poet and translation theorist, believes that Hursfield's poems are simple in form but profound in theme image, concise and transparent in language, which embodies the philosophical art of feeling. Her poems involve the core issues of human existence: both metaphysical meditation, ecological discourse, and subtle descriptions of daily life and daily experience. Hursfield's poetic language has opened a new world of meditation for us. More importantly, due to the integration of Buddhism and Zen, Hursfield's poems always give people an epiphany, which makes people re-examine their body, mind and nature. Poems permeated with Zen thoughts are close to people's hearts, reflect people's real life, and always fly with introspection and introspection.
2. Literature and cultural studies
Zhong Ling, a professor at National Sun Yat-sen University, was the first person in China to study Hesfield's poetry and poetics. In Chung Ling's "China Culture and American Literature Research Series", this paper analyzes Hursfield, such as her meditation karma, Zen case-solving reflected in her works and her meditation experience. In addition, the section "Life Zen and Creation" in the book specifically discusses the influence of Zen on Hursfield's life creation.
In Jane Hursfield's Voice and the Modernity Factors of Zen, Zhong Ling discusses the influence of Zen practice on the formation of her unique poetic style. She summed it up as: concentrate on training, avoid external interference, and replace personal instant emotions with "self". In addition to meditation, no distractions and undivided attention, the author also points out that we should observe small things in daily life. The training of concentration can make people free from the influence of other thoughts, thus avoiding external interference and achieving a state of peace and tranquility. The writing style of "self-removal" makes the poet himself not dominant, but daily things and nature have a certain right to speak. The "big self" is not limited to its own feelings. The author thinks that Hursfield's "big ego" embodies the view of "great wisdom". The essence of Zen is to gain spiritual enlightenment, such as trivial things in daily life that make people's thoughts flow in an unknown direction. As if the hidden window of the soul suddenly opened, a new emotional stream surged out and a brand-new world appeared in front of us.
There are also some translations and some simple comments on the study of Hursfield in China. For example, Shu Dandan's book "The Meaning of Being Elsewhere: Twelve Contemporary Poets in Europe and America" briefly mentioned the poetic style and origin of Hursfield.
Although known as "one of the most famous contemporary American poets", Hursfield has not attracted due attention in China academic circles. For most domestic scholars and readers, it seems strange. So far, it has not appeared as a case study, and the academic papers on her poetry and Buddhist thoughts are only focused on Zhong Ling's words. Zhong Ling constructed the relationship between China culture and American literature, and regarded Hursfield as the epitome of American literature, so as to study the embodiment of her Zen complex in her poems. For example, this paper discusses the changes brought about by the absorption and research of Zen by Hersfield to poetry creation, including the case-solving and Zen stories, the "single-sending" thinking adopted by China Zen in his works, and the enlightenment caused by accidental events. This is obviously of great significance for us to understand the Buddhist thought in Hursfield's poems. However, domestic research has not touched on the specific aspects of Buddhism and Zen thought embodied in his poems. Both the holistic view of Buddhism and Zen and the thought of selflessness can be found in his poems. Therefore, the study of Hursfield needs further exploration.
3. Study on Poetics and Aesthetic Thought
Foreign countries have made a comprehensive study of Hursfield, and combined with the poet's main poetry works, they have made an in-depth study of the characteristics and thoughts of poetry from all angles. The following characteristics can be summarized as three aspects: concern for man and nature, self-elimination and universal connection of everything in the world. The research on Hesfield's poetics and aesthetic thoughts mainly adopts the research method of induction and summary, trying to reveal the thoughts behind his poems.
On the other hand, the author discusses the concept of connection embodied in Hursfield's poems. She believes that in her poems, the world is a closely linked whole: fish, birds, water and human beings, people and others, individuals and the world. However, humans ignore some small animals and take their existence for granted. This wholeness is embodied in a continuity: the continuity between the poet and the world, the continuity between pain and joy, the continuity between life and death, and so on. This is complementary to the "causal reincarnation" in Buddhism and Zen thought. Without death, new life and new beginning can't exist, and everything will return to dust. Life is all related and life is one. In addition, the author also mentioned "self-exclusion through silence and silence", thus achieving more narrative effects in silence than they did in their voices. The participation of "no self" in poetry makes the artistic conception of poetry more beautiful.
Mark A.Eaton gave a detailed and comprehensive overview of most of the poet's poems and songs, which showed us a panoramic view of Hursfield's poems. He especially analyzed the description of nature in Hursfield's poems, and thought that the poet's meditation originated from her love for nature, and classified the view of nature in his poems as: the harmony between man and nature, and the harmony between people. Poetry not only shows concern for nature, but also shows a sense of responsibility for nature. And through the thinking mode of "meditation and silence", it shows a kind of enlightenment.
Tony Hoagland pointed out that Hersfield's poems use indirect writing techniques to explore Zen thoughts, and poetry rubs the current fulcrum into poetry, which makes people introspect. In the article, the author mentioned "no self", which can bring freedom and space to others. The article also mentions the poet's writing skills. The poet is good at using the art of "no words" and reticence, and also has the charm of "no self" in Buddhism and Zen thought. Peter Harris discussed and analyzed the relationship between Hesfield's meditation experience and her poetry creation, and thought that the meditation experience provided her with a world view different from that of the West. When dealing with the relationship between man and nature, the poet highlights the importance of nature. In addition, poetry also embodies the internal whole connection of the world and the view of opposing anthropocentrism. We can't avoid the smear of the world, and the task of poetry is to discover, create and establish broken connections. "Decentralization" embodies the harmonious unity between man and nature.
Looking at the study of Hursfield abroad, we can find that some scholars focus on the characteristics of her poems, such as pointing out the relationship between man and nature and everything in the world. Although some scholars have discussed the influence of meditation experience on her poetry creation, they have not noticed the specific relationship between the characteristics of her poetry and Buddhism. The author thinks that Hursfield not only integrates the experience of Buddhism and Zen into poetry creation, but also echoes the wholeness and non-ego in Buddhism and Zen thought. However, there is no separate study on Hershey's ecological thought under the background of Buddhism and Zen. Mark A. Eaton pointed out that the ecological thoughts contained in Hursfield's early works reflected cheryl Glow Felti's ecological criticism ―― the relationship between human civilization and the material world. Perhaps it is this concise expression that provides us with a feasible point for in-depth study.
4. Conclusion
Jane Hursfield is one of the famous contemporary American poetesses. The study of Jane Hursfield is helpful to clearly grasp the trend of contemporary American poetry and enrich and deepen the study of China poets. The thoughts of Buddhism and Zen in poetry are echoed with the familiar voices of Buddhism and Zen aesthetics. More importantly, Buddhism and Zen emphasize the unity of all things in nature, and dispel the anthropocentric value standpoint of modern culture with the virtue of "no self", which is helpful to enhance people's awareness of environmental protection. There is no doubt that Hursfield is deeply influenced by eastern culture, and the Buddhist and Zen thoughts in eastern culture have been inspiring her and affecting her lifestyle and poetry creation. Buddhism and Zen thought have brought shock waves to American literary works. From her, we can easily understand that in contemporary American poetry, the poet's new value orientation and spiritual fit, as well as his choice of pursuing new creative inspiration, also provide reference experience for scholars all over the world today. In the next stage, we should make more and more in-depth research on the Buddhist thought embodied in Hursfield's poems, essays and works and the ecological thought under the background of Buddhist thought. Exploring the Buddhist and Zen thoughts in Hursfield's poems provides another example for the study of literature and culture.
Poems of Jane Hursfield
Translated by Shu Dandan
Brief introduction of Jane Hershfield:
Jane Hershfield (1953-) is a contemporary American poetess. 1953 was born in new york. Graduated from Princeton University. He has published 6 poems,/kloc-0 essays and a large number of Japanese poetry translations. The poems mainly include araya (1982), About Gravity and Angels (1988), Palace in October (1994), Inner Life (1997) and Sugar and Salt. He was shortlisted for the National Book Review Award, and won many awards such as the National Poetry Center Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, the American Poets Academy Award, the National Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundation. Now lives in San Francisco.
emissary
One day in that room, a little mouse.
Two days later, a snake.
Seeing me come in,
It quickly put its stripes
Under the bed,
Then curl up like a tame pet.
I don't know how they got in or out.
Then I couldn't find anything with the flashlight.
I observed it for a year,
There seems to be something-fear? Are you happy? Sad? ——
Enter my body and leave.
I don't know how it got in,
I wonder how it got out.
It hangs out of the reach of language.
It sleeps where there is no light.
Its smell is neither snake nor mouse,
Neither carnal nor abstinence.
There are many in our life.
We have nothing to say.
Through them,
Cattle with bells walk at will,
Long legs, hunger and thirst, covered in exotic dust.
After a long silence
A polite retreat,
A beam of anchovy-like light.
Put the overturned pot on the dining rack,
When the moon comes out of the window.
Freedom to be late is in the dark.
The remaining soup has also been cleaned up.
The difference is crucial. A goat
A calm face should be called nobility.
Still indifferent. The proper difference between indifference and arrogance.
That untranslatable thought must be the most accurate.
However, words are not the end of thoughts, but the source.
Pyracantha and plums
Last autumn, frosted berries were still on the trees.
Spring blooms gently on another tree, full of hope.
The view from this window.
Almost the same as ten years ago, even fifteen years ago.
But this morning, it was like
A clearer and darker self-portrait,
It seems that when I am asleep, some Rembrandt or Bruegel.
I walked through the garden and looked determined.
Studies on melons and insects
A grotesque little gourd was placed on a piece of white ground.
Next to a beetle, one wing gently grabs the other.
There is no reason why.
The painter could have drawn a bent pine branch to hold up a heron.
I could have smeared 10,000 fish and turned them into arhats.
The two of them have been together for centuries,
Like a long and impossible battle.
The two halves of the marriage met on a park bench—
Sixty years later, sometimes I still feel like a stranger.
The old woman pretended to complain.
hill
At the moment, the mountain is clear,
In the strong morning light. Soon, disappeared into the fog.
I returned to Du Fu, afraid of reading.
Look up again, and you will find the moonlight outside the window-
But when I looked out, the fog was still there.
Only the temples of this ancient poet are gray,
A lonely goose waddled silently by.
A poem with two endings.
When it comes to "death", the whole room froze-
Even the sofa stopped moving,
And the lights.
It's like a squirrel suddenly realizing that he is being stared at.
Keep saying this word,
Things began to move forward.
Your life presents itself
The texture of spasms in old movies.
Go on, hold it in your mouth for a while,
It becomes another syllable.
A shopping mall revolves around the body of a beetle.
Death is greedy, it devours all life.
Life is greedy, it devours all death.
They will never be satisfied and will never be satisfied.
Everyone is devouring, devouring the world.
The power of life is as powerful as the power of death.
But those who have disappeared, those who have disappeared, dear, oh, where are they? )
The heat of autumn
The heat of autumn
Different from the heat in summer.
One ripens apples and the other turns them into cider.
One is the pier where you go out and stand,
The other is the spine of a thin horse,
This river is destined to get colder every day.
A man with cancer left his wife for his lover.
Before he left, she adjusted his belt in the closet.
Colour the socks and pullovers in the closet.
Rearrange. This is the heat of autumn;
Her hand put the silver buckle and the silver buckle together.
The golden buckle and the golden buckle are connected together, and they are hung on the
Hanging on an almost empty closet,
Think of it as happiness
Flowering wild peas
Every tragedy can be regarded as
A mature self-story to read,
Every character is a part of the soul.
Comedy can also be included.
Defects are often self-knowledge defects;
Sometimes it is greed. For this reason,
The funny light of a group of herring will not lead to the main plot line,
We can't imagine the tragedy of donkeys or bees.
In the face of mediocre reality, it is a mediocre failure:
Hunger, cold, anger, longing, heat.
However, one day, a heart as small as a wild pea flower opened.
After that, I no longer mind playing that important role with almost no lines.
No longer mind playing the messenger to send it there.
As we all know, letters will come too late or be destroyed by water.
Then, it's not wrong to stop by that fig tree and have something to eat.
Just a reason to leave.
Here's the thing: you are happy.
Here's the thing:
You're happy, then you're sad,
You are happy, and then you are sad.
Go on like this.
Are you innocent or guilty?
Take action, or do not take action.
Sometimes you speak, sometimes you are silent.
Most of the time, you seem to be silent-what can you say?
It's almost over now.
Like a lover, your life bends down and kisses your life.
This is not for forgiveness—
There's nothing to forgive between you-
But simply nodding like a baker,
When he saw that the bread had formed.
Eating is now someone else's business.
What will they do with you or your life?
It doesn't matter: they make mistakes,
They will miss the wrong woman and the wrong man.
All the stories they told were made up by themselves.
Your story is this: you are happy and sad,
You fell asleep, you woke up.
Sometimes I eat roasted chestnuts, and sometimes I eat persimmons.
promise
Mysteriously, they came, and there was not much time.
Mysteriously, they went.
As if that big chaotic dog was guarding my heart,
It never sleeps, and suddenly falls asleep.
Not to awaken anything great, not to that extent,
Get out of trifles.
I stared at the mountains in the blue ridge,
I drink streams. Like pebbles thrown out of the river bank.
No matter where my fate will go, I believe.
Even in the direction of greed, even sadness, trust.
There is nothing to be redeemed, neither ecstasy nor sinister.
The dog's tail wagged gently in its dream.
The Blue Ridge Mountains are located in the eastern United States.
[? $