Sparks from the Clouds: a modern Buddhist poem

IF 0.2 4区 社会学 0 HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
John A. F. Hopkins
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Although published only two years after Eliot’s famous modernist poem “The Waste Land” (1922), Miyazawa Kenji’s 52-line “Haru to Shura” (1924) is already very nearly as modern. The two poems, examined here using my expanded version of Riffaterre’s semiotic theory, have analogous propositional structure. One proposition concerns the faithless majority of mankind; the other involves a heavenly personage of potentially rehabilitating power. In Miyazawa’s case, the former is represented by Japanese peasants; the latter is the “Shura” – normally an unruly member of the lowest rank of Buddhist demigods. Miyazawa’s modernist message reverses the roles of these two personae: the Shura only wants to be recognized by the peasant he spies below his abode in the clouds. The peasant comes off as the lesser of the two beings because of his obdurate fixation on the soil. Miyazawa enhances the contrast of roles by painting the spring landscape – normally a season of burgeoning nature – in somber colors. This is a spring (haru) in which no birds sing, and the ranks of cypress trees are black. Commentaries by Japanese critics, plus one by one of my students, are examined: none can distance themselves from common sociolectic concepts of the seasons and the peasant population. Miyazawa, a devout Buddhist, is thus expressing a novel view of the people’s attitude to religion which they themselves are culpably unaware of. Their attitude is thus very close to that of the various personages in Eliot’s poem.
云中火花:一首现代佛教诗歌
宫泽贤治的 52 行诗《春到修罗》(1924 年)发表于艾略特著名的现代主义诗作《荒原》(1922 年)之后两年,但其现代性已非常接近。这两首诗的命题结构类似,我在此使用里法特雷符号学理论的扩展版本对其进行了研究。一个命题涉及失信的大多数人类;另一个命题则涉及一位具有潜在复兴力量的天神。在宫泽的作品中,前者以日本农民为代表,后者则是 "修罗"--通常是佛教半神中最低级的刁民。宫泽的现代主义信息颠倒了这两个角色:修罗只希望得到他在云端居所下方窥视的农民的认可。而农民由于固执于泥土,在这两种生命中显得较为卑微。宫泽用阴郁的色彩描绘春天的景色--通常是大自然蓬勃发展的季节--从而加强了角色的对比。这是一个没有鸟儿歌唱、柏树成行成列的春天(haru)。我们研究了日本评论家的评论,以及我的一位学生的评论:他们都无法摆脱社会对季节和农民的普遍认识。宫泽是一位虔诚的佛教徒,因此他对人们的宗教态度表达了一种新颖的看法,而他们自己却对此一无所知。因此,他们的态度与艾略特诗中不同人物的态度非常接近。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Chinese Semiotic Studies
Chinese Semiotic Studies HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-
CiteScore
0.60
自引率
0.00%
发文量
36
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