February’s Rose
惟有在詩文中可以勇敢表達
美國著名評論家邁克爾•埃斯庫巴斯: 詩人冰花像狄金森一樣，作品充滿了奇跡
——評冰花詩集《二月玫瑰》/February’s Rose
備受敬愛的20世紀初著名小說家威拉•凱瑟 (1873-1947) 曾寫道：
“許多人似乎以為藝術是融入生活的一種奢侈品。藝術源於生活本身的組成。藝術必須源於豐富多彩的生活。”
雖然凱瑟是小說家，冰花是詩人，但我感覺他們作品有異曲同工之妙。兩位都深知藝術的目的。兩者都秉持生活和藝術不可分割的理念。兩人都懂愛。兩人都知道失望。兩人都知道失去以及失而複得後變得更強大、更美好的喜悅。
徐英才極高水平出色翻譯的《二月玫瑰》，以人為本描繪生活。詩人本能地捕捉到愛的諷刺。她以流暢、簡潔的方式做到這一點。詩句結尾不用標點符號，讓讀者可以零距離接觸詩人的思緒和靈魂。她顯得真誠而平易近人。她的詩傳遞出自省、恐懼未來、和人性勝利的喜悅之間的張力。
《二月玫瑰》分七個部分，融合季節性主題與相應的內心季節變化。分別是：I.向日葵，II.二月玫瑰，III.那年夏天，IV. 荷的心事, V. 絕不投資愛情, VI.雙麵扇，和VII.月光圍巾。各個章節標題都妙趣橫生。
請看城市、自然和愛在《寂靜的心聲》一詩中如何交融：
繁忙的現代街道上
誰向心靈的春天奔跑
沐浴物欲的晨曦
躲過性欲的月光
孤獨
是嚴冬的寒風
黑色的長發
風中飄零
劃出道道傷痕
當寂靜的心聲
從遠方傳來
沒有人聽得見
那是溪水的流潺
那是高山的心顫
你不想錯過詩人如何利用“寂靜的聲音”來創造一個難忘的愛情時刻。
愛是冰花詩裏最重要的主題。她的詩幾乎涵蓋月月季季，彰顯出外部自然世界與（通常是看不見的）人性深處之間的契合。
冰花的擬人化天才在《六月風情》中得到體現：
藍天離我越來越近
踏著白雲走進心扉
六月的花園
每晚都有新的幼芽冒尖
每晨都有新的花朵綻開
六月的海洋
擁抱藍天的夢想
舞動浪花的翅膀
一葉白帆駛向遠方
輕輕拉勻了
藍天和海洋的色彩
臨風的岸上
兩棵椰子樹手挽著手
解不開六月的風情
這首詩裏，詩人在與大自然戀愛，喚起一種情感上的滿足，充盈了她沉思的心。從來沒有人對生命的挑戰做出容易的解答，“兩棵椰子樹手挽著手/解不開六月的風情。”
《春天》這首詩讓我們想起艾米莉•狄金森：
不知春天用什麽扇子
扇綠了草 扇紅了花
不知春天用什麽梳子
梳美了花園和街道
隻看到
花園裏 一朵鮮麗的玫瑰
開在最搶眼的地方
街道上 一輛迎新的彩車
來自鳥兒飛來的方向
哦 春天 如此嬌媚
我也想當春天的新娘
對詩人冰花來說，愛超越延伸了人類的愛。她被愛包圍，被世界的美麗所吸引，像狄金森一樣，她的作品充滿了奇跡。
與詩集裏的章節標題一樣，她的詩題也引人入勝：如“來吧”、“為什麽”、“如雪的思念”、“魚笑了”、“牙齒”、“灰塵”和“月光圍巾”等。
在整個《二月玫瑰》中，冰花的詩歌展現了精湛的技藝、成熟和鮮明的意向。
所有這些都在《如果我是風》中得到了極好的展現：
如果我是風
我會飛呀飛
飛落到他的肩頭
如果我是風
我會吹呀吹
把愛吹進他的心房
是的，威拉•凱瑟會感到驕傲；因為，像凱瑟一樣，冰花的詩藝源於豐富多彩的生活。
(原文February’s Rose Reviewed by Michael Escoubas
來自: http://quillandparchment.com/archives/August2022/book4.html)
Like Dickinson, Bing Hua poet's work is punctuated with wonder
By Michael Escoubas
The esteemed early 20th century novelist Willa Cather (1873-1947) once wrote:
“Many people seem to think that art is a luxury to be imported and tacked on to life. Art springs out of the very stuff that life is made of. Art must spring out of the fulness and richness of life.”
Although Cather was a novelist and Bing Hua a poet, I sense an affinity between them. Both understand the purpose of art. Both instill the idea that life and art cannot be separated. Both know love. Both know disappointment. Both know loss and the joy of recovering stronger and better in the face of loss.
February’s Rose, superbly translated by Yingcai Xu, portrays life with a strong sense of where people live. Intuitively, the poet captures the ironies of love. She does this in smooth, economical lines. With no end-line punctuation, readers enjoy close access to the poet’s mind and heart. She comes across as genuine and accessible. Her poems resonate with tensions of self-understanding; fears of what to do next, and joys triumphant in the human spirit.
Organized into seven sections, February’s Rose, combines seasonal themes with cor-responding seasons of the heart. The sections include: I. The Sunflower, II. February’s Rose, III. That Summer, IV. The Lotus’ Obsession, V. Never Invest in Love, VI. A Hand Fan, and VII. The Scarf of the Moonlight. Even the section titles evoke interest.
Notice the confluence of city, nature and love in this excerpt from “The Sound of Silence”:
On the busy modern street
Who runs to the spring of heart
Bathing in the morning rays of materials
And keeping off from the moonlight of sexual desire
Loneliness
Is the biting wind of winter
Long black hair
That drifts in the wind
Lacerates the air
When the sound of silence
Wafts over from the distance
Nobody can hear it
That is the gurgling of a rill
And the throbbing of a mountain
You won’t want to miss how the poet uses the sound of silence to create a memorable moment of love.
Love is Bing Hua’s overriding theme. She includes virtually every month and season of the year showing connections between the outer world of nature and the inner (and often invisible) world of human nature.
Bing Hua’s talent for personification is displayed in “The Amorous Knot of June”:
Closer and closer, the blue sky
Walks on white clouds into my heart
In June’s garden
Every night, new plants sprout
Every morning, new flowers bloom
June’s ocean
Is a dream to embrace the blue sky
Is a wing to heave splashes
A white sail glides to the distance
Lightly and evenly stretching out
The colors of the blue sky and the ocean
On the wind-touched riverbank
Two coconut palms stand hand in hand
But cannot tie the amorous knot
Here, the poet is in love with nature. She invokes a kind of emotional completion, which is satisfying to her contemplative heart. Never one to provide an easy answer to life’s challenges, “Two coconut palms stand hand in hand / But cannot tie the amorous knot.”
The poem “Spring” brings Emily Dickinson to mind:
I wonder what type of fan spring uses
That has fanned the grass green and flowers red
I wonder what type of comb spring uses
That has spruced up the gardens and streets
I only see
A fresh and bright rose in the garden
Blooming in the most eye-catching place
A wedding float in the street
Coming from where birds come
O, spring, you are so sweet and charming
I want to be the bride of spring too
Love, for this poet, extends beyond human love. Bing Hua feels encircled by love. Possessed by the world’s beauty, and like Dickinson, her work is punctuated with wonder.
As with her section titles, her poem titles attract interest: “Come on Over,” “Why,” “My Longing for You Is Like Snow,” “Fish Begin to Chuckle,” “Teeth,” “Dust,” and “The Scarf of Moonlight,” to name but a few.
Throughout February’s Rose, Bing Hua’s poetry exhibits craftsmanship, maturity and clarity of purpose.
All of this is superbly illustrated in “If I Were Wind”:
If I were wind
I would fly and fly
Till I alight on his shoulders
If I were wind
I would blow and blow
To blow my love into his heart
Yes, Willa Cather would be proud; because, like Cather, Bing Hua’s art springs from the fulness and richness of life.
(Original February’s Rose Reviewed by Michael Escoubas from: http://quillandparchment.com/archives/August2022/book4.html )
邁克爾•埃斯庫巴斯Michael Escoubas
邁克爾•埃斯庫巴斯是在美國有 21 年曆史的文學和文化藝術網上詩歌期刊《鵝毛筆和羊皮紙》/ Quill and Parchment 的特約詩人、高級編輯和書評家。
邁克爾以大器晚成著稱， 66 歲從印刷行業退休（2013 年）後他才為出版寫作。在此之前，邁克爾閱讀、學習和自學詩歌約 25 年。
他已出版五部詩集。其中包括：Images: A Collection of Ekphrastic Poems/《意象：埃克弗拉斯詩集》（2021）, Light Comes Softly/《輕柔的光》，和ekphrastic poems/《抒情詩》, Monet in Poetry and Paint /《詩畫莫奈》兩部詩集（2018年），及Steve Henderson in poetry and Paint /《史蒂夫•亨德森的詩歌和繪畫》（2019年），還出版有關於新冠肺炎疫情的奉獻詩集Little Book of Devotions: Poems that Connect Nature, God and Man /《奉獻小書：連接自然、上帝和人的詩》（2020年）。
邁克爾的詩歌曾多次獲得詩歌大獎，並被編入多種選集。他出版的著作均可見於亞馬遜。
About Michael Escoubas:
Michael Escoubas serves as contributing poet, senior editor and book reviewer for Quill and Parchment, a 21-year-old literary and cultural arts online poetry journal.
Regarded as something of a late bloomer, Michael did not write for publication until after his retirement from a career in the printing industry (2013), at age 66. Prior to this Michael read, studied, and educated himself in poetry for approximately 25 years.
He is the author of five collections of poetry. These include: Images: A Collection of Ekphrastic Poems, (2021). He has also published one chapbook, Light Comes Softly, two other collections of ekphrastic poems, Monet in Poetry and Paint (2018), Steve Henderson in poetry and Paint (2019), and one book of devotional poems based on the Covid-19 Pandemic, Little Book of Devotions: Poems that Connect Nature, God and Man (2020).
Winner of numerous poetry awards, Michael’s poems have been widely anthologized. His publications are available via Amazon.
February’s Rose
by Bing Hua
Translation by Yingcai Xu
100 poems ~ 140 pages
Format: 6’’ x 9” ~ Perfect Bound
Price: $19.99
Publisher: Finishing Line Press
ISBN: ISBN-10: 1646627822
ISBN-13: 978-1646627820
To Order: Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Februarys-Rose-Bing-Hua/dp/1646627822/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1WLS9M16O2IBK&keywords=by+bing+hua&qid=1647629194&s=books&sprefix=%2Cstripbooks%2C43&sr=1-1
