Whenit comes to the influence of foreign literature on me, such names should beincluded: Franz Kafka, Osip Mandelshtam, R. M. Rilke, Ezra Pound,Walt Whitman as well as MiyazawaKenji. They tell me the relationship between poets and the world, as well asdemonstrate the power of establishing order in nihility. What they ultimatelytell me goes beyond poems themselves, but the meaning of human existence.
Words are beyond expression when it comesto the charm of Osip Mandelshtam who childishly recounted the life-and-deathmatter by a mixture of solemnness and humor, transferred his commitment tofreedom in reality into the words through a way to explore the perfection oflanguage like a magician, and conversed with the souls around him and those ofRussia and human civilization in the past or in the future. He taught me toposit myself among the global civilization, shouldering my responsibility as amessenger and witness.
EzraPound instructed me how I should decisively address the chaos of themodern world with classical elegance. In terms of philosophy of poetry, themost influential thing he taught me isthat there is no place for taboos in writing a poem. Similar to Du Fu, a Chinesepoet, Pound is a pessimist ultimately or at leastan agnostic, which resembles Du Fu in his later years.
R. M. Rilke imparted me that both love andpoem are difficult, and that’s exactly why they are worthwhile. What’s more, ifI have to name a book that has a lifelong influence on me, it must be Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke wherewe know it is critically important for us to accept an admonition from a maturebrother when we are not sure about whether we have a correct choice in youth.The perfect, majestic mystical world view of his letters and poems guides andeven blesses me when I set my first step to confront the vast world.
Such requirements Franz Kafka gave me whichwere in a higher level than R. M. Rilke did are as follows: First, unhesitatinglylook through the illusion of society and see the real world as it should be;second, firmly write down such illusion and truth; third, establish a closerelationship with loneliness. I'll never guess what I am going to get fromKafka, for he is a shy magician. By the way, he imparted me with the knowledgeof rhetorical devices such as digress, empathy, briefness and despair, but Iknow there is more than ten times the secret awaiting me.
WaltWhitman taught me how to admire the world as one member of it. Contrary to thegeneral reader, what I care about most is not Whitman as a person (nor hisincarnations), but the world in the poetry of Whitman, theworld beyond himself, the world of others that he praised. The idea in thematter of fact that he praises himself is also a part of his appreciation ofthe world, nurturing me all the same, and telling me how to treat myself andexternals in a sound way.
I am happy to know that I am in the samehealthy state of mind with Whitman where I can fairly treat those which rushinto my poetry whether they are benevolent or poisonous. Both Whitman and Pound give me a bon appetite.What Pound wrote to Whitman is also what Iwant to express. That is to say that you have cut off new woods, and it is timeto carve now. People like Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Dylan and us all havetaken over this mission.
Miyazawa Kenji, a Japanese poet, has a greatinfluence on me in recent years though I knew him thirty years ago. He comparedhimself to Asura, who have the characteristics of divinity / devil of Holderlinand Nietzsche in his twilight years. Kenji’s poems contains the vigorous universeand the trial from the human soul, which I believe I will make a deep study inthe future and we can take about it later.