Of course, there are more than a few dozen poets who have settled or wandered in Shanghai. By the time the poetry meeting officially began, there were more than eighty of them, and they were all heads and faces.

Zhou Hexuan is not the leader of the martial arts alliance, and he has not yet reached the level of universal response.

Nearly 100 poets came this time, and they could only say that their peers gave face, or they were curious to see what Zhou Hexuan was going to do.

Even writers like Lin Yutang, who is not keen on poetry, came to join in the fun today. According to Lin Yutang's original words: "Everyone in Chinese literati is a poet, or pretending to be a poet, and five-tenths of the literati anthology contains poems. ”

The tables and chairs in the venue were arranged in a multi-"back" shape, everyone was facing the center, some tea and dried fruits were placed on the table, and some informal people had already sat down to eat.

"Bang bang bang!"

Zhou Hexuan slapped his face, attracted everyone's attention, and said: "Today, I am very happy that there are many poets and talents gathered in the Chinachem Hotel. Please come to the restaurant for dinner at noon, I'll be the east, anyway, I can't make everyone hungry. ”

"Eat down the big capitalists!" Yang Sao suddenly shouted, still knocking melon seeds in his mouth.

"Hahahaha!"

Everyone burst into laughter, and even Shao Gongzi, who had a lot of money, was amused.

Yang Sao was complacent, his face was not red and his heart was not beating, and he continued to knock on melon seeds, as if he wanted to use the way of eating melon seeds to impoverish Zhou Hexuan, a big capitalist.

Bai Wei, the live-in girlfriend, couldn't stand it anymore, gently pulled Yang Sao's sleeve, and said in a low voice: "Crazy again, respect Mr. Zhou!" Also, stop eating, like someone starved you. ”

"It's up to you." Yang Sao threw the melon seed skin back.

In the mid-30s, there were three major schools in the Chinese poetry scene, namely: the left-wing poetry school, the crescent school and the modernist school.

The Chinese Poetry Society is an organization belonging to the left-wing poetry school, which does not have a specific style, but has a creative proposition - ideology and popularization, that is, writing proletarian poetry and popular poetry.

Yang Sao is one of the initiators of the Chinese Poetry Society, and his girlfriend Bai Wei belongs to the writers of the Creation Society (Guo Moruo, Yu Dafu's Creation Society).

Bai Wei's father is a veteran of the League, and although he is a new-school figure, he engages in arranged marriages. In order to escape from marriage, Bai Wei ran away from home and went to school to study, and her parents chased her to the school, and the school closed the school to arrest people, with the help of her sister and classmates, she escaped from the hole in the school wall and hid directly in Japan to study.

In Japan, Bai Wei fell in love with Yang Sao at first sight, and immediately launched a crazy chase. Wherever Yang Sao hid, Bai Wei chased after him, chased and fled for more than ten years, but Yang Sao still couldn't escape from Bai Wei's palm after all.

Both of them are Lu Xun's disciples and are the backbone of Shanghai's left-wing literary circles.

Dai Wangshu is more familiar with Yang Shao, and they used to be both symbolist poets. Symbolism was very popular in the 20s, but it declined in the 30s, with Dai Wangshu joining the modernists and Yang Sao joining the left-wing poetry school.

Dai Wangshu didn't make a fool of himself, he looked at Pang De who was sitting next to him, and shouted, "Mr. Zhou, let Mr. Pang De say a few words!" ”

Zhou Hexuan introduced with a smile: "This is the American poet Ezra Pound. ”

Pound stood up and waved his hand and said in Chinese: "Hello everyone, don't worry about me, I'm just here to observe." ”

Foreigners speaking Chinese is always a rare Western scene, and even those left-wing poets are quite interested, shouting for Pound to say a few words of poetry creation.

Pound couldn't refuse, so he could only speak: "I think that ancient Chinese poetry is the most beautiful poetry in the world." Poetry should have imagery and beauty, and the imagery beauty of Chinese Han poetry is incomparable to any other poetry. I once translated a Chinese poem into English called "Liu Che", please enjoy it: the silk rustle is no longer heard / The dust is flying in the palace courtyard / No footsteps can be heard, and the leaves / Rolled in piles, still / She, the joy in my heart, sleeps underneath / A damp leaf sticks to the threshold. ”

The poem "Liu Che" was recited in English, and it sounded very rhymed, but the Chinese poets present were a little confused, because they could not guess that Pound was translating the ancient poem.

"Was there a poem called Liu Che in ancient China?"

"I haven't heard of it anyway."

"This foreign devil is talking nonsense."

"Actually, it's pretty well written."

“……”

Zhou Hexuan was also a little puzzled, and said, "Mr. Pound, you can recite the original poem in Chinese again." ”

"Ahem!"

Pound cleared his throat and chanted in broken Chinese: "Luo is silent, and the jade is dusty." The empty room is cold and lonely, and the fallen leaves are attached to the heavy door. Looking at the beautiful daughter, Ande feels restless? ”

"Poof!"

Yang Sao squirted out a sip of tea and looked at Pang De dumbfounded.

"Ahem, ahem!"

The poet Pu Feng was also choked on the tea, and quickly covered his mouth, and the muscles of his cheeks twitched and wanted to laugh.

"Well, I'll say it." Someone raised their hand in the back of the room.

Zhou Hexuan nodded and said, "Please speak." ”

The man lifted his glasses and said: "American poetry has always been not valued by us, and Mr. Pound's "Liu Che" belongs to the masterpiece of American poetry, and it is also one of the representative works of European and American Imagist poetry. In particular, the phrase 'fallen leaves' is known as a model of the superposition of images. ”

"May I ask who this gentleman is?" Zhou Hexuan said.

The man replied, "Xie Danru." ”

Xie Danru, a member of the Lakeside Poetry Society, a close friend of Lu Xun, Qu Qiubai, Feng Xuefeng and others. Although he did not join the Communist Party, he has been engaged in underground secret work for a long time, helping to pass on many secret documents, and often hiding in his house when the underground party is hunted down.

Zhou Hexuan applauded: "Thank you, Mr. for your advice!" ”

"Don't dare to be." Xie Danru was extremely modest.

Xie Danru's statement is very correct, this specious "Liu Che" is indeed a masterpiece in the history of American poetry, and "falling leaf sentences" has even become a famous allusion in the history of American poetry. Of course, the status of this poem is not so high now, and it will be a few decades before it will be praised by American poets on the altar.

American poetry is now in the midst of modernism, but it's a tragedy to say.

Its leading figures are undoubtedly Eliot and Pound. But although they were born in the United States, they lived in Europe for a long time, and Eliot simply became a British citizen, so that they were automatically regarded as European poets.

The rest of Stevens, Moore, Cummings and the like, although very famous in the United States, are really not known in China, and they are far inferior to Whitman, who has been dead for decades.

In the United States, there is a desert of culture and art, and even music is looked down upon, not to mention even more compelling poetry. A song "Liu Che", which is not amazing, can become a classic of American poetry, which shows how terrible they are.

The real rise of American poetry will have to wait until after the end of World War II, after all, it has its own halo of human hope.

However, the poem recited by Pound is a good start for today's poetry meeting. Following this topic, everyone began to talk about European and American poetry, and then turned to the creation of contemporary Chinese poetry, and left-wing poets quarreled with other poets.

In fact, in the 30s, poetry was developed in China, not only in China, but also in the world, and poetry creation was moving closer to modernism, and more or less borrowed and integrated some modernist techniques.

The works of China's left-wing poetry school also have many modernist characteristics, and some of them are simply modernist works.

However, the left-wing poetry school advocated popular poetry and the popularization of poetry. However, many freelance poets are keen to express themselves and like to write poems in obscurity, and the two sides quarrel fiercely about the content and intention of the poems.

Zhou Hexuan watched the show for a while, smiled and clapped his hands: "Everyone be quiet, can you let me say a few words?" ”