Mu Dan

Mu Dan

Mudan (April 5, 1918 - February 26, 1977), formerly known as Zha Liangzheng, was born in Tianjin with a pen name of Liang Zhen. His ancestral home is Yuanhua Town, Haining City, Zhejiang Province. Modernist poets and translators.

After graduating from Southwest Associated University in 1940, he stayed in school to teach. In 1949, he went to the United States to study in the Department of English literature, University of Chicago. In 1952, he received a master of Arts degree. After returning to China in 1953, he became an associate professor of Foreign Languages Department of Nankai University. In 1958, he was persecuted and transferred to the library. On February 26, 1977, Mu Dan died of a heart attack at the age of 59.

In 1940s, Mu Dan published three poetry collections: expedition, collection of Mu Dan's Poems (1939-1945) and flag, which combine western European modernism with Chinese poetry tradition. His poetry style is full of symbolic implication and spiritual speculation. He is a representative poet of "nine leaf poetry school". After the 1980s, many modern literature experts regarded him as the first person in modern poetry. His main translations include Russian Pushkin's Bronze knight and Pushkin's lyric poetry anthology, British Shelley's Skylark and Shelley's lyric poetry anthology, British Byron's Don Juan, Byron's lyric poetry anthology, British Black's poetry anthology and Keats's poetry anthology.

Character evaluation

As early as 1940s, Mu Dan became the most popular young poet at that time, and his poems had strong repercussions among Shanghai poets. In the early 1940s, Wen Yiduo selected 11 of his poems when he edited modern poetry notes, the number of which is second only to Xu Zhimo. In early 1948, Fang Yuchen's English translation of selected modern Chinese poems was published in London, in which nine Mu Dan's poems were selected and translated. In 1952, two of Mu Dan's English poems were selected by the American poet Hubert Creekmore into the alittle treasure of world poetry, while He Qifang was the only other Chinese poet selected. The artistic style, poetic tradition, ideological tendency and significance of literary history of Mu Dan's poems were deeply discussed by some poets and critics in the 1940s, and introduced to the English literature circle.

Since the early 1950s, Mu Dan has been frequently hit by political movements and suffered great physical and mental devastation. He was forced to disappear from the poetry world and turned to devote himself to the translation of foreign poetry until his sudden death. It was years after Mu Dan's death that people began to recognize him again. People published his poetry anthology and commemorative works, held "Mudan academic seminar", and gave him high praise. He even topped the list of "20th century Chinese poetry masters". This unusual species is called "Mudan phenomenon".

Yuan Kejia believes in the new direction of poetry that Mu Dan is "one of the most energetic and possibly the most far-reaching talents in this generation of poets". Now it seems that this judgment is accurate.

Yuan Kejia recalled the origin and development of the modern new poetry trend in the history of modern literature, and believed that "Mudan was in the forefront of the new poetry trend in the 1940s, and he was one of the real standard bearers. He has done more thoroughly than anyone in the "modernization" of lyric style and language art. However, Yuan also pointed out that such "thoroughness" inevitably brings a certain degree of rigidity and obscurity to some immature poems, so that his works can not be understood and appreciated by more people today. This is a lesson we should learn.

Wang Zuoliang thinks that "in any case, Mu Dan has arrived in the front area of the Chinese poetic world, with new poetic themes and new poetic language, but critics and literary historians have not come close to him for a long time.". Wang Zuoliang also talked about Mu Dan's poems in his later years. He thought that after nearly 30 years of ups and downs, the poet still had a talent beyond his reach. He thinks that "winter" can be placed among Mu Dan's best works.

Life of the characters

He was born in Tianjin on April 5, 1918. He and the writer Jin Yong (Zha Liangyong) are brothers and uncles of the same clan. They all belong to the "good" generation and are related.

In 1929, he entered Nankai Middle School and began to write poems. At that time, when the Japanese invaders invaded Beijing and Tianjin, Mu Dan wrote "mourning for the national calamity" and cried out: "seeing the blood and sweat of the ancestors turn into smoke, / the iron bird broke the smiling faces of the dead heroes! /Once the glory of four thousand years subsides, the iron hoof will turn the enemy's fierce flame

In 1934, Cha Liangzheng split the surname "Cha" up and down. Mu and Mu were homophonic and got the name of "Mudan" (originally written as "Mudan").

In 1935, he was admitted to the Department of geology of Tsinghua University. Half a year later, he changed to the Department of foreign languages. After the outbreak of the Anti Japanese War, he traveled with the school to Changsha, Kunming and other places, and published a large number of poems in the supplement of Ta Kung Pao in Hong Kong and Wen Ju in Kunming. He became a famous young poet.

Mu Dan continued to explore and write modern poetry here and published it in Tsinghua academic journal. He wrote the romantic poetry of Shelley style, with a strong Lyric temperament and a strong sense of reality.

After the July 7th incident in 1937, he moved south with the university to Changsha National Changsha temporary University in October, and then hiked to Kunming southwest United University. In the same year, he published several representative works in the supplement of Ta Kung Pao in Hong Kong and Wen Ju in Kunming, such as chorus, lyric in air raid shelter, from emptiness to fullness and praise.

In 1939, Mu Dan began to contact with Western modernist poetry and literary theory systematically. His creation changed and became mature.

In 1940, Mu Dan graduated from the Department of foreign languages of Southwest Associated University. He stayed as a teaching assistant and was responsible for the reception and teaching of Freshmen in Xuyong branch.

In February 1942, Mu Dan, 24, responded to the call of the national government for "young intellectuals to join the army", signed up as a teaching assistant to join the Chinese expeditionary army to Burma, and joined the 5th army headquarters where Du Yuming, deputy commander-in-chief, was also commander-in-chief. He joined the army in the Anti Japanese battlefield in Burma as a lieutenant colonel translator. From May to September of the same year, he personally experienced the retreat of Yunnan and Myanmar, and experienced the battle of yerenshan, which shocked both China and foreign countries. He crossed the mountains in the sun blocking tropical rainforest, helped his illness and escaped from yerenshan by walking on piles of bones.

In 1943, after Mu Dan returned to China, he experienced several years of unstable life. In 1945, he founded Shenyang new daily as editor in chief.

In September 1945, based on the experience of fighting in Burma, he wrote the famous poem in the history of Chinese modernist poetry, the charm of the forest -- sacrifice to the white bone on the hukang River, as well as the related works, the blocked road and living.

In 1947, he took part in the creation of the "nine leaf poetry school".

In 1948, he worked in FAO (relief agency of the world food and Agriculture Organization) and us information service.

In August 1949, he went to the United States to study English and American literature and Russian literature at his own expense.

In December 1949, he was studying in biology department in Florida.

He graduated on June 30, 1952 with a master of Arts degree from the University of Chicago.

In early 1953, he returned to Tianjin from the United States as an associate professor in the Department of foreign languages of Nankai University and devoted himself to the translation of Russian and English poetry.

In 1958, Mu Dan was referred to as a historical counter revolution. He transferred to the library and bathhouse. He was controlled, criticized and reformed through labor for more than ten years. He stopped writing poetry and insisted on translation.

In 1975, he resumed his poetry creation and composed nearly 30 works, including song of wisdom, after power failure and winter.

On March 31, 1976, the femoral neck of the right leg was broken. During the Spring Festival on February 26, 1977, Mu Dan died of a heart attack in the early morning. He was 59 years old. Before his death, Mu Dan expressed his inner monologue in meditation

"Now, suddenly facing the grave, I look back to the past coldly, and see its twists and turns of happiness and sadness disappear in an ancient desert. Only then can I know that all my efforts have only completed my ordinary life. "

It was rehabilitated in 1979.

Mu Dan was buried in Wan'an cemetery in Beijing

Achievements of works

Main works

Creation: Expedition (1945), "Mudan Poetry Anthology (1939-1945)" (1947), "flag" (1948), "Mudan poetry anthology" (1986), "Mudan poetry anthology" (1996), "winter".

Translated works: Pushkin's Lyric Poetry Anthology (1954), Eugene Onegin (1957), don Juan (1980), modern English Poetry Anthology (1985), and Mudan's translation Anthology (2005).

Other works

Love, ideal, friendship, spring, flow, the water of the Yangtze River, praise, reason and emotion, after the power failure, song of wisdom, mourning, song of roses, dedication, childhood, spring and bees, I heard I was old, the end of spring came, in the cold night of December, may, dusk, winter night, the story of roses《 I, autumn, autumn, myself, two worlds, discovery, I sing of the body, I see, eight poems, garden, departure, in the wilderness, Thanksgiving - a shameful debt, a dream of nature, they are dead, summer, farewell, reduction, bread, sacrifice, my uncle is dead, the charm of the forest—— Sacrifice to the bones on hukang River, crack, mourning for the national calamity, poem, difference, feeling of Sanmenxia water conservancy project, portrait of pessimist, beast, watchman, live on

Chinese PinYin : Mu Dan