Xu Zhimo first saw Tianjin in 19 16. At that time, Xu Zhimo gave up his natural science study and was admitted to Tianjin Beiyang University, which is famous for its English teaching. His elective courses include logic, psychology, China literature and English literature, which shows his love for literature.
The next summer, it was time to be promoted to undergraduate course, but Beiyang University abolished the law department and merged it into the law department of Peking University. Xu Zhimo naturally transferred to Peking University to study French and Japanese. Because of this coincidence, Liang Qichao was called a teacher. The study in this period greatly broadened Xu Zhimo's ideological field and opened up a real literary road. While dabbling in ancient and modern literature and art, he also made many friends, and his poems began to pay attention to the sufferings of people's livelihood. I have to say that the merger of the law departments of the two universities can be said to be an unintentional accident.
In his collection of poems "One Night in the Green", we saw a poem entitled "Late at night outside Dagukou on March 12", which wrote: "Stay outside Dagukou tonight: a prisoner in the sea complains about others". That is his memory of Tianjin. This poem was written in the early spring of the fifteenth year of the Republic of China. At that time, Sun Yue's army was stationed in Dagukou, Tianjin, and refused to perform military service. Xu Zhimo sailed north and was forced to wait at Dagukou for a week. He walked on the deck and wrote this poem. At this time, Xu Zhimo has returned from studying abroad for several years, but his realistic feelings of hating war and yearning for freedom are still strong, which is more or less influenced by his life moving north.
If the first fate between Xu Zhimo and Tianjin is the identity of a student, then this second chance becomes the identity of a mentor. 192 1 year later, Xu Zhimo began to write new poems with beautiful writing and language, which won the focus of British romantic poetry. After returning to China from 65438 to 0922, Xu Zhimo published a large number of poems in newspapers and magazines, which attracted domestic attention.
Xu Zhimo pursued "love, freedom and beauty" in reality and fantasy all his life. His ideals were not only difficult to blossom and bear fruit in the real society at that time, but also often suppressed and destroyed. When "idealism" hit a wall, Xu Zhimo was dissatisfied and rebelled against the dark realistic environment, and pinned his ideals on the fantasy world at the same time. This feeling also represented the thoughts of some young people at that time, so many young artists were fans of Xu Zhimo at that time.
Speaking of Tianjin, some young poets appeared at that time. Although there are many poems, they are limited to ignorance of the outside world and lack of works. I hope to communicate with Xu Zhimo. At that time, young Zhao and several young artists founded the "Green Wave Society" in Tianjin, which gradually expanded their influence and became a gathering place for young artists. For example, Jiao Juyin, the author of Crying in a Foreign Land at Night, and Yu Gengyu, the author of Before Dawn, Devil's Dance and Lonely Soul, are all interns. Most members of this club are keen on the creation of new poems and are very interested in Xu Zhimo's "Western-style" poems. Therefore, members of society are eager to listen to the master's lectures.
I didn't expect some things to be so coincidental. 1923 Summer vacation, Nankai University opened a summer school and held a series of lectures during the summer vacation. Sure enough, I invited Xu Zhimo, who was just famous at that time. The main contents of the lecture include ten lectures on modern English literature and one lecture on future school poetry. Of course, we must seize this great opportunity, so Green Wave will decide that all members of Tianjin headquarters should sign up together. The lecture lasted for two weeks, totaling ten hours. These two comments were recorded by Zhao and compiled into Modern Literature Series published by 1925.
In Zhao's prose collection "The Sorrow of Master Zhimo", we can understand the content of this lecture and its far-reaching influence on this group of young people. Xu Zhimo took an English version of Goethe's poem and asked the students in the class to translate it. As a result, Zhao won the first prize. There is a reward for winning the first prize. What is the reward? This is a huge portrait of Goethe. Later, xu teacher gave him a postcard of the statue of Franc as a souvenir of Xu Zhimo.
After the lecture, students from Green Wave Society often go to Xu Zhimo's dormitory. Xu Zhimo also asked the students if they had read Shakespeare. He leads students to read some Shakespeare's original works and learn about real English literature.
After Xu Zhimo's speech on this trip, members of the Tianjin headquarters of the Green Wave Society also invited teachers to have tea and chat, also to say goodbye. On the lawn by the lake, the sun shines on the students through the shade. Birds and flowers, accompanied by Xu Zhimo's elegant and enthusiastic talk, let the students feel the baptism of the soul again and again. Finally, everyone took a group photo together. During this period, Xu Zhimo asked Zhao, "Do you take literature as your profession?" Shen Jing said, "I think so." Xu Zhimo shook his head and said, "Too much trouble, too much trouble! Literature must be a sideline. " Xu Zhimo also published a representative bibliography for young people who want to know about foreign literary schools and development history.
Zhao and Xu Zhimo have maintained a long-term friendship since they left. Zhao 1930 has been a professor at Fudan University, and has gradually grown into a drama researcher, literary historian, educator and writer in China. Jiao Juyin also listened carefully to Xu Zhimo's lecture and will become a famous drama master in China in the future. It can be said that although Xu Zhimo only stayed in Tianjin for fifteen days, he planted the seeds of literature for Tianjin.
When Tagore, the Nobel Prize in Literature laureate and Indian poet, came to China to give a speech, Xu Zhimo was his translator. They are both teachers and friends, and they have deep feelings. Xu Zhimo's life is like Tagore's poem: "Life is as beautiful as summer flowers and death is as beautiful as autumn leaves." It's just that autumn leaves wither too fast to leave more colors for the world. Today, 82 years later, people still remember that Xu Zhimo injected fresh blood into China's literary world and brought a spring breeze to Tianjin's new literature.