The original sentence is:
You have your copper branches and iron stems, like a knife, like a sword, like a halberd ...
I have my red flower, like a heroic torch, like a heavy sigh ...
Copper branches and iron stems represent strength and courage. They symbolize male characteristics.
In contrast, red flowers represent women's femininity and enthusiasm.
To Oak is a love poem written by Shu Ting in March 1977. It is one of the representative works of the misty poetry school. As a pioneering work of literature in the new period, To the Oak is self-evident in the history of literature. Through the "confession" of the kapok tree to the oak tree, the author denies the secular and unequal view of love, calls for freedom, equality and independence, and shouts out the slogan of equality between men and women in love, and sends out the declaration of independence of women's yearning for love in the new era.
Creation background
"To Oak" is Shu Ting's famous work, and Shu Ting himself admits: "10 years, I have written a lot of essays, and the total amount has far exceeded poetry. But most readers only remember my poems and often equate my name with an oak tree. " In the book True Water Without Fragrance, she recalled the prototype and creative process of To the Oak.
1975 Cai Qijiao, an old returned overseas Chinese poet who once helped her a lot in writing, visited Gulangyu Island. That night, when Shu Ting accompanied him for a walk, Cai Qijiao told her about the girl she met in her life. It was bold to talk openly about liking girls in the 1970s. Cai Qijiao said that there are beautiful girls, but no talent; Talented girls are not beautiful; Beautiful, talented and fierce, he found it difficult to find a perfect girl. Shu Ting said that she was very angry after listening to it. She thinks this is male chauvinism and men and women should be equal. So that night, she wrote a poem "Oak Tree" and gave it to Cai Qijiao. Later, when it was published, it was changed to To Oak.