Perhaps poetry and distance are just a scam by Gao Xiaosong

Article | Daniel Li

For many people, "Poetry and Distance" is just a dream.

When you remember it, it is always like the white moonlight in your heart, which brightens your mood and makes your face smile; when you hold it in your arms, it turns over and over again, and trivial matters in the world will inevitably come to your mind again, adding new sorrows.

Why is Huang Liang a dream? Why add to the sorrow?

To sum up, "poetry and distance" is not about the distance, but the distance is the poetic place in the heart.

01

In 2016, Gao Xiaosong, who has always been chic, composed a new song "Life is more than what is in front of you". As soon as this song came out, people rushed to recite the lyrics, "Life is not just the mundane things in front of you, but also poetry and distant fields."

This lyric is still a mantra of many people to this day.

When you are dragging your tired body on the way home, silently encourage yourself, "Life is not just about the present, but also poetry and distance."

When you are tied to firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea, and you go back and forth from home, market, and supermarket every day, tell yourself in your heart, "Life is not just about the mediocre things in front of you, but also poetry and distance."

When your life is more miserable than in a TV series, your blood pressure rises every day, and your adrenaline surges, secretly comfort yourself, "Life is not just about the mediocre things in front of you, but also poetry and distance."

So "poetry and distance" really became the distance, far away in those tourist resorts with beautiful scenery, far away in the shopping paradise in other places, far away from this three-acre land, anything else that is divorced from life. place.

"Poetry and the distance" has become a dream,

"Poetry and the distance" has become a luxury hope,

"Poetry and the distance" has become a utopia.

02

Once when I was chatting with a friend from Huangshan and talking about the misfortune and bitterness of life, she smiled and said, "It's nothing, there are still poems and distant places." .

At that time, I had been confused about what "poetry and distance" were. I quickly asked her, "What do you mean by poetry and distance?"

"It's just going outside. Travel, see the scenery, and make yourself happy."

"Aren't you in the Huangshan Scenic Area? Where are you going and what kind of scenery are you going to see?"

"As long as you are not there? You should be able to go to other scenic spots here.”

At that moment, I had an enlightenment. It turns out that the “poetry and distance” that many of us talk about are just superficial things in the eyes of others. Elsewhere is just the physical distance, a ticket, an air ticket, to the place you are about to arrive.

The distant place has not yet been reached, full of all kinds of beautiful and wonderful imaginations. For the sake of the distance, some people are fearless, just as Gao Xiaosong wrote in his song, "Despite everything for that sea."

But in the end, it turned out to be the vicissitudes of life, as Li Zongsheng wrote, "After crossing the hill, I found that no one was waiting."

Neruda wrote this sentence in "The Traveler":

"The traveler asks himself whether he has wasted his time and pushed the road further, only to return to the original place. The starting point is sad, come back and say goodbye to yourself again, and start again! ”

Life is still cruel, and those who should be content are still content.

"Distance" is not a panacea to solve the pain of life, it is just a shot of anesthetic. After the medicine is over, even if the body is far away, the spirit will still be reluctant.

03

The faraway places many of us talk about are people we have never owned.

Li Ao’s distant place was once Hu Yinmeng.

Before he had it, Hu Yinmeng was in every possible way good, as beautiful as a flower, knowledgeable and courteous. Li Ao drew nine hundred and ninety-nine portraits of her in his heart, none of which had any flaws.

He thought about it day and night, pursuing everything, and finally had Hu Yinmeng.

Once the dream is brought closer, it becomes as bleak as ordinary reality.

Li Ao discovered that this fairy on earth also wanted to eat, drink, and defecate. He finally drew a big flaw on the 1,000th portrait. His distant place collapsed instantly, and the 115-day marriage was over.

Lin Huiyin has always been in the distance of Xu Zhimo.

Although Lin Huiyin is beautiful, he is also versatile. His literary talent can outshine Wenquxing, and his martial arts can climb mountains and wading rivers to learn scriptures. But Lin Huiyin is a fairy in the world after all.

What Xu Zhimo saw was always her fairy side, but he did not see Lin Huiyin's sickly appearance.

Because he has never owned it, in Xu Zhimo’s heart, even if he painted thousands of Lin Huiyins, they would all be Lin Huiyin in the distance, and they were all his dreams.

Whether it is Li Ao or Xu Zhimo, they are like photographers taking pictures, and the photos they take are always beautiful and have a far-reaching artistic conception. It's not that the real scene is really so beautiful, but that the photographer highlighted the important things and downplayed the unimportant ones.

There is not only beauty in the distance, but we have not seen it. The distance is never "realistic", it is just "photographic".

04

Is the distance really just a dream?

No!

Because "poetry and distance" itself is not a physical distance, it is a spiritual distance.

This is about the "poetry" in "Poetry and Distance".

Compared with the mediocre life, poetry is a poetic life. Poetry is also the spiritual distance.

Gouqi is the physical experience of all kinds of things in the world, including having children, raising a family, and reciprocating relationships; poetry is the ferry of the spirit, and finding the joy of life in the trivial matters of the world.

Those who have this kind of poetic flavor and live their lives as "poetry and distance" must not avoid Tao Yuanming.

Mr. Tao Yuanming may have never imagined that he would become a spiritual model for future generations and be studied and praised by generations of people.

He wrote in "Drinking? Part 5":

The house is in a human environment, without the noise of cars and horses.

How can you do this? The mind is far away from itself.

Picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence, you can see Nanshan leisurely.

The mountain air is getting better day by day, and the birds are flying back and forth.

There is a true meaning in this, but I have forgotten to explain it.

Tao Yuanming lived in a bustling city, but he never felt the noise of cars and horses. Why is this so?

"The mind is far away and is biased."

Because my heart is not here, the focus of my attention is not here, so I and these trivial matters are completely forgotten, and I can completely enjoy myself in the busy city.

Tao Yuanming's joy was to pick a few chrysanthemums in the yard of his home. The moment he looked up, he saw the sunset over Nanshan Mountain in the distance, the clouds moved away, and the birds returned to their nests. It suddenly felt like a fairyland in another world.

This kind of fun is the fun that comes from living a casual life. It is not about escaping from life, but about discovering some beauty and fun in trivial life with a poetic vision.

What is poetry?

The poetic meaning is "the small window is dressing up";

the poetic meaning is "opening the pavilion, talking about mulberry and hemp while drinking wine";

the poetic meaning is " Withered vines, old trees and dim crows, small bridges and flowing water, people's houses";

The poetry is "Children rush to chase yellow butterflies, flying into cauliflower and nowhere to find them"

These are scenes of life , in the eyes of the poet, have become the concrete embodiment of poetry.

In an interview, writer Feng Tang defined poetry this way,

“Poetry is a state of life. It does not refer to the distance, but to the present, now, Life in progress. In life, discovering beauty, appreciating beauty, and experiencing beauty is poetry. ”

05

“Poetry and distance” are truly in our present moment. in life.

We wore beautiful clothes, went to have afternoon tea, sat in a unique Internet celebrity shop, ate exquisite snacks, listened to the sweet French chanson song, and even outside the house The elegant environment is our life, this is not a "distant place".

Nowadays, many young people always like to say that they want to go on a spontaneous trip. They want to go to Tibet and the grasslands to feel the "poetry and distance" in their hearts.

But once they take a step forward, they will really discover that there is a "distant place" somewhere. They have to calculate the expenses and routes every day, eat, drink and have sex, and their sloppy life follows them everywhere. Accompany.

"Poetry and distance" are not the so-called distance. Gao Xiaosong's lyrics have confused too many of us.

So much so that when we completely believe what he said, in the end it really turns out to be what Ma Di (Diyin) sang in "Nan Shan Nan": "In the ultimate life, you can never finish a dream."