Bei Dao was a representative of "obscure poets," and the leading figure and spiritual leader of the "obscure poetry" movement. He opened the path of "obscure poetry" creation, and was one of the most prominent poets in the "obscure poetry" movement. Bei Dao began to create poems in the mid and late 1970s, and still creates poems today.
Bei Dao's poetry creations are divided into the early stage and the late stage with the late 1980s as the dividing point. In the early stage, he mainly created "obscure poems" represented by The Answer, An End or a Beginning - for Yu Luoke, Resume, Walking Toward Winter, Nightmare, poetry collection Notes from the City of the Sun, etc. These poems express the poet's deep worries about the motherland and people's future and fate. Bei Dao sharply criticized the phenomenon of social injustice, and closely examined issues such as life, death, history and freedom. Sticking to ideals and yearning for common and peaceful life are also main themes of Bei Dao's "obscure poems."
The Answer is Bei Dao's representative work created in 1976 soon after the Cultural Revolution ended:
Debasement is the password of the base,
Nobility is the epitaph of the noble.
See how the gilded sky is covered
With the drifting twisted shadows of the dead.
The Ice Age is over now.
Why is there ice everywhere?
The Cape of Good Hope has been discovered.
Why do a thousand sails contest the Dead Sea?
I came into this world Bringing only paper, rope, a shadow. To proclaim before the judgement The voice that has been judged:
Let me tell you, world. I-do-not-believe!
If a thousand challengers lie beneath your feet, Count me as number one thousand and one.
I don't believe the sky is blue;
I don SE believe in thunder s echoes;
I don t believe that dreams are false;
I don | believe that death has no revenge.
If the sea is destined to breach the dikes
Let all the brackish water pour into my heart;
If the land is destined no rise
Let humanity choose a peak for existence again.
A new conjunction and glimmering stars
Adorn the unobstructed sky now;
They are the pictographs from five thousand years.
They are the watchful eyes of future generations.
In that period, "base people" were not hindered while "noble people" could only go to graves. The poet wanted to expose the mask of that period and let people see its despicable reality. He cried loud, "1-do-not-believe!" People sleeping in the dark were wakened, became sober again, and exposed the hypocrisy of the world. The poet did not believe anything in the world, and wanted to fight against the times resolutely as a challenger. The Answer with clear rebellious consciousness sharply criticizes the society. The poem uses a lot of artistic methods such as symbolization and metaphor, and its direct expression of emotions and epigrams full of philosophical meanings are extremely grim, full of grief and indignation, and extremely shocking.
Poetry collection Notes from the City of the Sun was created at the end of the 1970s, consisting of 14 short poems. Each poem only has one or two sentences or even one word. Notes from the City of the Sun attracts readers' attention with its novel form, and its lines full of philosophical meanings enhance its charm. The poet expressed his understanding and comprehension of life in this poetry collection. The last poem Life only has one word:
Net
No explanation is needed. The word "net" depicts the essence of life and expressed Bei Dao's deep understanding of life.
With the decline of the "obscure poetry" movement, Bei Dao created less and less works and even stopped creating works for a while. After he settled down abroad in 1989, he began to create poems again. His later poems inherit the linguistic style of his early poems but shift the focus from the society to individuals' life experiences and inner feelings, manifesting warmth in grimness. His long years of wandering overseas made "nostalgia" an important theme of Bei Dao's poems imperceptibly, and his poems were more and more permeated by the poet's love for his mother tongue. Important works written in this period include A Local Accent, Going Home, etc. A Local Accent is as follows:
I speak Chinese to the mirror
a park has its own winter
I put on music
winter is free of flies
I make coffee unhurriedly
flies don't understand what s meant by a native land I add a little sugar
a native land is a kind of local accent I hear my fright
on the other end of a phone line
"A park" has its own "winter," but "I" cannot find my destination. "I" put on music and make coffee to alleviate my gloomy mood, but there is no effect. "I" am more miserable than "flies" that have no native land or pain of missing and live free and easy. The poet's self-mocking makes readers feel more grieved.
Bei Dao having ingenious imagination and profound thought made successful attempts to modernize poetry creation; he persistently loved Chinese, developed the potential of Chinese and made modern Chinese poems more expressive; he inherited the poetry traditions of the "May 4th Movement," reshaped humanistic spirit, and reached another peak of Chinese modern poetry's development. Bei Dao received the Swedish PEN Literary Award, the PEN Center USA West Award for Freelance Writing, the Guggenheim Fellowship, etc., was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and won reputation around the world,