內容簡介

As a person of modern times, I have been more or less influenced by modern poetry so I have the motivation to write modern poems. The Tang poetry features the Tang dynasty, the Song poetry the Song dynasty, and the Ming-Qing poetry the Ming and the Qing dynasties. Based on the concept of literary development, we should learn and write not only ancient poetry but modern poetry. What differs from others, the true feelings of caring about the world rooted in Taiwan can become a spiritual power condensed in words with the skills of explicit and implied comparisons. Therefore, the poems tend to have vivid imagery or be picture-like and easy to read. This collection gathers all my modern poetry works so it means a great deal to me.

作者介紹

王建生 Wang Chien-Shen (1946-)

a native of Pingtung, Taiwan, had taught in Tunghai University for more than 40 years. He had been Professor of the Department of Chinese Literature, Tunghai University since February 1982 and had served as Director of the Department of Chinese Literature. He is now a research scholar, poetry and prose writer, amateur calligrapher and Chinese painter, the Honorary Chairman of the Chinese Brush Art Association of Taiwan Province, and an amateur collector. He has been to the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University and the School of Liberal Arts, Nanjing University for academic exchanges and teaching as Chair Professor. He has published nearly 50 kinds of academic works, poem collections, article collections, painting albums, etc. and about 70 papers.

序

★Preface

My poem collections I have published include, in chronological order, A Collection of Wang Chien-Shen’s Poems and Articles, the first volume of Chien-Shen’s Poem Drafts, The Collection of Gushing Spring, (the above three are all self-published books,) A Collection of Mountain-Water Painting Inscribing Poems (Taipei: Shang-Da United), A Sequel to the Collection of Mountain-Water Painting Inscribing Poems (Taipei: Showwe Information), and The Collection of Stars: A Collection of Selected Modern Poems of Wang Chien-Shen. Further, A Selection of Chien-Shen’s Calligraphy Works and Paintings (Taichung: Sky Digital) also contains painting inscribing poems.
A Collection of Wang Chien-Shen’s Poems and Articles was published in July 1990, the 79th year of the Republic of China. The poems are collected in the third part “Poems and Ci Poems” and are all Chinese classic ones. The first volume of Chien-Shen’s Poem Drafts was published in November 1992, the 81th year of the Republic of China. It collects (5-character and 7-character) deep feeling poems, painting inscribing poems, and modern poems. There are 10 modern poems and “A Poem Written in Random” is further translated into English by myself. A Selection of Chien-Shen’s Calligraphy Works and Paintings collects some painting inscribing modern poems from 1993, the 82th year of the Republic of China, to 1996, the 85th year of the Republic of China. The Collection of Gushing Spring, published in March 2001, the 90th year of the Republic of China, collects 24 poems, including (5-character, 6-character, and 7-character) deep feeling poems, (5-character, 7-character, and modern) painting inscribing poems, and modern poems. The self-published poem collections were completely given to relatives, friends, and students within 3 to 4 years.
A Collection of Mountain-Water Painting Inscribing Poems was published in December in 2009, the 98th year of the Republic of China. It records modern poems and single-sentence, double-sentence, mixed-sentence, 5-character and 7-character ancient-form poems. A Sequel to the Collection of Mountain-Water Painting Inscribing Poems was published in August, 2011, the 100th year of the Republic of China; it collects single-sentence, double-sentence, and ancient-form poems. Some of the poems have not been included in previous poem collections. This Collection of Stars collects only modern poems because most of the previous poem collections mainly collect ancient-form poems and neglect the field of modern poetry to some degree. So I decided to gather the modern poems I have written in the past and made this book. However, my early poems were often handwritten at will, copied in a notebook or recorded in a note. Many of them were scattered and lost so it was not easy to collect them completely. For example, I almost missed the poem inscribed on the cover of The Poem Magazine of Fertile Dream 沃夢詩刊 of Tunghai University in 2004, the jia-shen year. Despite the difficulties in collecting my old works, I still tried to collect and compile them into one book.
Ancient people think poetry is the voice of the mind that expresses the true feelings of the author and is as precious as the “jade” in the material world, so I named the collection of my early works as “The Collection of Picking Jade.” In particular, when I was the chief editor of the quarterly Tunghai Literature and Art 東海文藝, I had abundant creativity so I accumulated some works unknowingly. Since 2012, the 101st year of the Republic of China, I had recorded daily moods with more systematic use of poetry. “The Collection of Black and White” was written from May 26 to November 20, 2012; “The Collection of Hatching Dreams,” from October 12 to December 31, 2012; “The Collection of Having Feelings,” from January 2013 to the present, arranged in time order. No matter published or not, they are all collected together. Therefore, this book contains 51 poems of “The Collection of Picking Jade,” 35 poems of “The Collection of Black and White,” 32 poems of “The Collection of Hatching Dreams,” and 28 poems of “The Collection of Having Feelings,” which means 146 poems in total. The content includes personal emotional expressions, deep feelings, painting inscriptions, dreamlands, as well as caring for the society, current events, caring for friends and relatives, and so on. It involves real and unreal things, themes of variety. I just directly describe with my poems what I see and what I feel in my daily life, without nonsense. They show my romantic feelings, bewildering and dreamy emotions, surprising and strange dreamlands, processes of wrestling with the reality and unyielding mentality, as well social issues people less concerned about. Though these themes of creation are made out of temporary personal feelings, they exist like the flickering stars in the night sky. Besides, in some people’s minds, the souls of the elders and friends that have passed away will go back to heaven and transform into big and small stars. For instance, Su Shi 蘇軾 in the Song dynasty has said, “in the sky it becomes the stars,” “in the dark it becomes ghosts and gods, and in the bright it becomes humans.” The arc-shaped sky is like an enlarged dipper full of color diamonds radiating splendor. A poem of Zhang Ji 張籍 in the Tang dynasty has mentioned: “He is like the Big Dipper in the sky; people can take them as the standard to believe and follow.” This says that Han Yu’s death is like the Big Dipper in heaven, which have consistent directions in all seasons. The saying also goes “the Big Dipper has turned and the stars have moved” 斗轉星移, which means the transfer of stars symbolizes changes of time. Each poem in the collection marks true feelings of different times. “A collection of poems with many associations” best describes The Collection of Stars. The publication of this poem collection has enriched my life.
As a person of modern times, I have been more or less influenced by modern poetry so I have the motivation to write modern poems. The Tang poetry features the Tang dynasty, the Song poetry the Song dynasty, and the Ming-Qing poetry the Ming and the Qing dynasties. Based on the concept of literary development, we should learn and write not only ancient poetry but modern poetry. What differs from others, the true feelings of caring about the world rooted in Taiwan can become a spiritual power condensed in words with the skills of explicit and implied comparisons. Therefore, the poems tend to have vivid imagery or be picture-like and easy to read. This collection gathers all my modern poetry works so it means a great deal to me.
In 2014, Showwe Information Co., Ltd. 秀威資訊 published the Chinese version of The Collection of Stars. Afterwards, I had the collection translated into English, which forms the English version, in order to expand readership. Finally, I would like to thank my young friend Miss Chen Erh-Wei 陳爾薇 for her assistance with translation and Showwe for assisting the publication.

Wang Chien-Shen in Mountain
Dadu December 2018

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