詩歌之胃

“這饑餓的胃，吞下一列奔跑的火車”（詩歌《胃》），多年前，我對詩歌與時代的關系有過如此的表達。我一直以為詩歌有一顆巨大的胃，它能消化橡膠、煤、鈾、月亮、昆蟲、飛鳥，正如五金廠的機器，“每天吃下鐵，圖紙∕星辰，露珠，咸味的汗水，它反復剔牙∕吐出利潤，鈔票，酒巴”。如何讓詩歌之胃有效地消化時代這列奔跑的火車，用詩歌將時代與現實的關系呈現出來，將真實的生活與內心的鏡像呈現出來，如何將倫理與藝術有機結合起來。我一直在尋找這樣一種有體溫的詩歌，這種溫度從倫理上來源于生活，來源于現實，來源于人，從藝術上來源于被人們忽視的詞語中，來源于詩歌內部的技藝。

無論是名詞或者動詞，都有一個內在暗示的支點，我們要找到它，將內心的鏡象呈現出來。科學家阿基米德曾說給他一支點，可以撬起地球，在詩歌中，我們何嘗不是用具體語言的支點將整個世界在詩歌中平衡。用詞語為支點，撬動現實的世界，用詞語讓現實倫理與藝術審美達到平衡。我在工廠生活多年，面對的日常生活是細小的螺絲、鐵片、塑膠、玩具……這些詞語的背后是戶籍、訂單、經濟危機、資本市場，在這些龐大的與細小的事物間，如何用詩歌之胃將它們消化，變為藝術，如何在社會現實這個龐然大物與細小的日常生活間尋找平衡之道，藝術地呈現社會現實。我在詩歌《電子廠》里表達過，“這細小的元件/被賦予了龐大的意義，經濟，資本/品牌，訂單，危機，還得加上爭吵的/愛情”，在細小的電子晶片與經濟、資本、品牌間建構內心的詩歌，“可以肯定在電子廠，時代在變小/無限地小……小成一塊合格的二元管”。面對社會倫理與詩歌藝術，我選擇了一些具有方向性的暗示的詞作為某種支點來平衡二者的關系，比如 “她站在某個五金廠的窗口/背對著遼闊的祖國，昏暗而渾濁的路燈用一臺機器收藏了她內心的孤獨”（詩歌《劇》）。在這句詩中，“窗口”與“路燈”便是這樣的支點。“窗口”這個詞，它本身具有強烈的擴張性，我將其擴張到一種極致，將其過渡到更為龐大的事物，從“窗口”到“祖國”是一種極致的向外擴張。“路燈”這個詞則有收縮性，將這個詞不斷地壓縮，讓它從龐大的意象之間返回個體內心的鏡象之中，從“路燈”到“內心的孤獨”是一種向內性的收縮。在詩歌中精確地尋找這樣具有支點性的詞語，來實現社會倫理與詩歌藝術巧妙的平衡。

詩歌中的詞語具有無限可能性，詞的多種意義像不斷交叉的路徑，不斷地蜿蜒伸展交錯，讓我們的表達有了無限種的可能性。面對自己的現實生活時，將一些具體的事物，比如圖紙，鐵銹，機臺，鋼針，螺絲，膠片，合格紙等，不斷通過某種暗喻來呈現內心的精神感受。這些支點性的詞語有時如一枚鐵釘，能將龐大的事物釘在詩歌的墻上，它讓圖紙鐵銹等日常事物發生了巨大而復雜的變化，比如斑駁的鐵銹便可以隱喻起伏不定的人生，“鐵”可以隱喻不同的內心情感，比如憂傷，疼痛，喜悅等，大大地拓展“鐵”在藝術表達中的美學意義。鐵、鐵銹、起伏不定的人生、內心的憂傷與喜悅等這些事物與情感我們早已知，如何通過有效的詞語將其內在關系連接起，讓我們的詩歌有了區別于以往作品的新的方式，拓展原來固定的意象審美與情感表達，在我的詩集《黃麻嶺》中，我探索對“鐵”“雨水”“鑼釘”等工業詞語在現代詩歌的美學意義，實現詩歌對社會現實的發聲。我相信每一件事物中都包含著不同的詩意，詩人們只是在特定的時候發現已存在于它身上的詩意的一部分，詩歌要不斷沖破日常事物以往固有的條條框框的樊籬，讓它承載新的意義與生命力。

“在胃里藏一個活著的靈魂”（詩歌《胃》），詩歌之胃除了要吞下時代這列“奔跑的火車”外，還應有一個“活著的靈魂”。“活著的靈魂”來自于藝術的本身，也來自于生命的本身。只有用藝術的方法去穿透時代與現實的外部與表面，直抵事物的核心，詩歌才會有“活著的靈魂”。我不斷地在詩歌中表達打工生活，不斷地從工業區、路燈、流水線、鐵片、雨水等去尋找新的意義。當一塊鐵因為它擺在機臺上，或露天，或倉庫，或爐火等不同的位置上，我能不能尋找到不同的隱喻與意義呢？它彎曲了，它化著鐵水，它變成了某個制品，它生銹了，它涂上油漆了等等，其實在這些變化中，它本身就隱含了不同的暗喻與意義，我們能不能沖破以往固有的條條框框的樊籬，發現新的隱喻與含義，如何打通它們與社會之間的關系，讓自己的思想、感情與工業時代的事物保持一種微妙的平衡。如何發現電腦、水泥、高樓、鋼鐵、網絡、塑料等這些工業化時代的詞語的詩意，我希望它們，它們和流水、樹木、群山等傳統的事物一樣，都具有詩意，探索這些工業詞語的奧妙，認識工業事物的真諦，我一直認為雙手建造的事物與大自然賜與的事物都是神圣的，對這些新的事物需要保持戀人一樣的熱情，熱愛著自然也熱愛著自身的創造，在這些機器、塑膠中，都飽含了人類自己的智慧。從生活具體的情景與事件、人物中出發，給平凡的人和最不起眼的主題以新的視角，給表達對象以人性與藝術的雙層尊嚴。我不愿意自己的表達對象會在擁擠不堪中被巨大的人群壓碎，變成一張面孔，一個影子，一個數字的一部分，變成擁擠的人群擠成一個失蹤者，不愿她們在人群中喪失了自己，隱匿了自己。在這個“奔跑的火車”的社會中，我們被數字統計，被公共語言簡化，被歸類、整理、淘汰、統計、省略、忽視……我覺得自己要從人群中或者繁復的社會中將我表達的對象掏出來，把她們變成一個個具體的人，她們是一個女兒、母親、妻子、父親、丈夫……他們的柴米油鹽、喜樂哀傷、悲歡離合……她們是獨立的個體，有著一個個具體名字，來自哪里，做過些什么，從人群中找出她們或者自己，讓她們返回個體獨立的世界中，讓她們還以人性的尊嚴。

只有這種尊嚴才能給“詩歌之胃”“活著的靈魂”，“詩歌之胃”不僅僅吞下時代“這列奔跑的火車”，也有了藝術的尊嚴，詩歌的尊嚴。

The Stomach of Poetry

Zheng Xiaoqiong

“This starving stomach swallowed a speeding train” (Stomach). These were the words I used many years ago to describe the relation between poetry and our times. I’ve always believed that poetry has a gigantic stomach able to digest rubber, coal and uranium the same way it can digest the moon, an insect or stray birds. In this sense, it’s just like a factory machine which “feeds on iron and diagrams/ Starlight, dewdrop, salty sweat, it keeps picking its teeth/ Spitting profits, banknotes and alcohol”. I’ve been seeking the kind of poetry that has the stomach to assimilate the fast moving train of this age, poetry that mirrors the reality of this time and the reality of the heart, poetry that interweaves ethics and art, poetry that gives off warmth, a warmth ethically originated in life, reality and humanity, whereas artistically rooted in neglected words and poetic artistry. 

Every noun and verb has an implicit fulcrum which we need to find in order to show what’s inside ourselves. The great scientist Archimedes once said “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I shall move the world.” Likewise, couldn’t it be that standing on the fulcrum of words, we balance the world through poetry? For on the fulcrum of words, ethics and art also find balance in the real world. I spend many years of my life in a factory coexisting with small things like screws, iron sheets, plastics, toys…But behind these words underlie bigger ones such as housing registration, purchase orders, economic crisis and capital markets. How can the stomach of poetry digest these things, regardless of their triviality or enormousness, and turn them into art? How can we balance the enormity of social reality with the triviality of ordinary life? Just like the description in my poem Electronics Factory: “This tiny little component/a greater meaning conveys, economy, capital/Brand, purchase orders, crisis, and quarrelling on top/Love”, words like microchips, economy, capital and brands inspire my poetry: “In the electronics factory the times are shrinking/unendingly shrinking…up to become a qualified diode”. I tend to use suggestive words with directional meanings as a fulcrum to balance social ethics and poem artistry. For example, in the following poem: “Standing by the window of some hardware factory/ with her back against the boundless motherland, a dim and muddy streetlight hid away her solitude, using a machine” (Drama). On these lines the words “window” and “street lamp” are fulcrums. The word “window” has an expansive nature, which allows it to extend itself to its very limit and convey something as big as the “motherland”. “Street lamp” on the other hand, has a narrowing nature. Its enormity shrinks to the point of becoming a part of an individual emotion such as “solitude”. That is how I find the subtle balance between social ethics and poem artistry: by selecting words in poems as fulcrums to stand on.

Words in poems have an endless myriad of possibilities. Carrying various meanings, extending and intersecting with each other, they offer unlimited possibilities to our expression. In life, tangible things such as diagrams, rust, work boards, steel needles, screws, films and paper can be used as metaphors to convey deep human emotions. Sometimes these fulcrum-words are like iron nails, capable of nailing gigantic matters on the wall of poetry which in turn brings enormous and complex changes to ordinary things such as diagrams and rust. Mottled rust, for example, can allude to the twists of life; iron can convey different emotions like sorrow, pain or joy, which then again provide the word “iron” with a broader aesthetic meaning... We have long known things like iron and rust, we are aware of the twists of life and we are acquainted with emotions such as sorrow and joy, but what we need now are effective words to link the internal relations in order to distinguish our poems from previous artistic works and to challenge the rooted clichés of symbols and emotions. I did my own experiment in my Poetry Anthology Huangma Hill as I explored the aesthetic meanings of industrial words like “iron”, “rain” and “screw” in modern poems, with the aim to allow society to find their own voice in poetry. It is my belief that there is poetry in every object, of which only part is found by poets at some point. Poems need to break free from the fence of stereotypes in order to bring about new meanings and vitality.

“There is a living soul inside this stomach” (Stomach) the stomach of poetry ought to own a “living soul” when swallowing the “speeding train” of this time. This “living soul” finds its source both in art and in life. Only the poems that penetrate the superficial shell of time and reality to reach the very essence of things are poems with a “living soul”. I’ve been writing poems about my life as a factory worker, seeking new meanings from industrial zones, street lights, production lines, iron sheets and rain. Is it possible to look for different metaphors and meanings for the same iron sheet when placed in different spaces such as a machine bed or the open air, a warehouse or a stove fire? Iron can be bent, melted or turned into a product; it can rust, it can also be painted. All those changes and transformation of the same iron: bending, melting, becoming a product, being corroded or painted contain different implications and metaphors for us to discover by breaking free from the shackles of stereotypes. How can we build the link between those meanings and society to maintain a subtle balance between our thoughts, our emotions and things amidst this Industrial Age? How can we find poetry in words like computer, skyscraper, iron, steel, Internet, plastic, to the extent that we do in traditional poetic words like water, trees and mountains, discovering the magic of industrial vocabulary and unveiling the truth of industrial objects? I’ve always believed that both what is built by human hands and what is given by nature is sacred. Therefore, we should cherish our creations no less than we cherish nature, for machines and plastics are too a product of human wisdom. You should represent ordinary people and those least noticed from a human perspective, then you’re dignifying them both from a human and from an artistic point of view. I would never want my art subjects to be crushed by the crowd and just become a face, a shadow, a single digit of a big number or a lost person among the crowd. Nor would I want them to lose or hide themselves in the same crowd. On this “speeding train” of society everyone is numbered, simplified by language, categorized, arranged, eliminated, calculated, omitted and neglected… What I want to achieve is to humanize my subjects in the crowd, turn them into a daughter, a mother, a wife, a father, or a husband…into people with everyday life, joy and sorrow. They are individuals with names, birth places and personal histories. Find yourself or find them, take them out from the crowd and give them back their individual identity and dignity. 

Only this dignity can give a “living soul” to “the stomach of poetry”, so that this stomach, instead of just swallowing the “speeding train” of this age, can truly enjoy the dignity of art and poetry.