He was a poet known for the nostalgia he describes in his poems. Now, it’s time: for us to express our nostalgia for this great writer.
On Dec 14, 2017, the famous Chinese poet Yu Guangzhong passed away in Taiwan. Born in 1928 in Nanjing, Jiangsu, Yu studied in Sichuan when he was young. At that time, he had showed great interest in Chinese poems and spent a lot of his free time trying writing poems himself. Then he managed to publish his first poem at the age of 20. A year later, Yu and his family moved to Taiwan. He lived and worked there until his death.
Nostalgia is Yu’s masterpiece in which he expresses his homesickness for the Chinese mainland when he was in Taiwan.
Published in 1971, the poem remains highly popular among Chinese speakers worldwide. Even those who know little about literature are familiar with lines from the poem. The poem is included in Chinese high school textbooks.
Besides his achievements in poetry, Yu was also a successful essay writer, critic and translator. He once translated English poet Siegfried Sassoon’s poem In Me, Past, Present, Future Meet into Chinese. It is regarded as an accurate and powerful translation, in which the most famous line is “心有猛虎, 细嗅蔷薇” for “In me the tiger sniffs the rose”.
Yu spent his whole life writing. “The reason why I stick to writing till today comes down to my passion for the Chinese language,” he once said in a 2015 interview. He then added that this passion was strengthened by his love for his mother and his motherland.
Now, let’s appreciate the poem Nostalgia.
| When I was young, But later on, Nostalgia was a tiny, tiny stamp. Nostalgia was a low, low grave. Me on this side, Me on this outside, Mother on the other side. And my mother was inside. When I grew up, And at present, Nostalgia was a narrow boat ticket. Nostalgia becomes a shallow strait. Me on this side, Me on this side, Bride on the other side. Mainland on the other side. |
| A．A poet, reporter and critic. | B．A translator and publisher. |
| C．A critic, poet and translator. | D．A translator and song writer. |
| A．Yu lived with his family in Taiwan all his life. |
| B．Many Chinese people know the poem Nostalgia. |
| C．We can find Nostalgia in primary school textbooks. |
| D．Yu translated Siegfried Sassoon's poem into English. |
| A．He made a lot of money from writing. | B．He had great interest in English poems. |
| C．He loved his family and mainland a lot. | D．He had a lot of free time and was bored. |
| A．He missed his family and homeland a lot. |
| B．He didn’t want to come to his homeland. |
| C．He lived with his mother on the riverside. |
| D．His mother had died when he got married. |
