In_a_Station_of_the_Metro

In a Station of the Metro Background It was written in 1913, the First World War was coming. Everyone at that time is under the horrific shadow of the war. He is also one of the leaders of the Imagist Movement of poetry. In a Station of the Metro is an observation of the poet of the human faces seen in a Paris’s subway station in which the faces turned variously toward light and darkness. 庞德的这首小诗虽然只有短短两行，但其却是最早的意象派诗歌代作之一。而且，就是这两行诗，竟有着二十余种不尽相同的中文译本，可见这首诗的地位与影响 作者庞德，是位美国诗人、评论家，并且是意象派诗歌运动创始人之一,当时诗人站在一个地铁的出口，面对形色匆匆的人群，面对地铁站台的嘈杂和混乱迷失了，然后走出地铁站的一瞬间，看到的景象使他有所感悟 Content This poem just has 14 words in the whole poem. However, the images in this poem give us the interior meaning. The images are apparition, faces, petals and bough. What does the apparition mean? One is “suddenly appear” and the other is “something like the ghost”. This word nicely captures the immediate impression left on the poet’s mind and the powerful emotional impact he felt in that situation.We can easily touch that the faces in the subway are depressed. At this time, Pound saw a child’s lovely face,The lovely faces mixed with the depressed faces. And the poet arouses a complex of joy and fear which is hard to tell from each other. Of course, in this poem, petals indicate faces. When we mention petals, we also think about smiling or some beautiful thing. The subway is just like the bough, although it is wet, dark and black, we still should use love and smiling to face them. Subway is a microcosm of the whole society. The faces there are like apparition and people are so depressed with helpless. But the children’s lovely faces let Pound associate the beautiful petal in natural. Although the bough is wet and black, it has the petals on it. Although the society is depressed and helpless, there is still hope in everybody’s heart. There is no doubt that the lovely face meant a promising future. The poem is just like a mirror which reflects the hopeful song in the soul of human beings. Style Written in a Japanese haiku style(俳句) Pound’s process of deletion from thirty lines to only fourteen words typifies Imagism’s focus on economy of language, precision of imagery and experimenting with non-traditional verse forms. It is always acknowledged as the best imagist poem.写下三十多行诗，最后又经一年多的思考和删改，只留下这两行，成为意象派诗歌的代表作 This poem is in a succinct style which just has 14 words in the whole poem. He uses two lines to describe a vivid picture for us. The first line is narration and the second is expression. 1912年,庞德与弗林特等人共同提出了意象派诗歌三:1)直接描绘主观或客观的“事物”;2)决不使用无助于表达的任何词语;3)关于节奏:依附于音乐性词语的顺序,而不是按照节拍的顺序进行写作。主张用自由的诗体展现精确的意象。意象派诗论的中心在“意象”。 I have mentioned that apparition has two means which is a typical pun. The petals obviously indicate the lovely faces, so it is a metaphor. And the first line and the second line are using the contrast. Repeating it, you can feel the beauty of music through it’s repetition of different vowels and consonants, such as /p/ and /au/. Especially the repetition of /e/ in the second line emphasizes its sense of music. 此诗酷似19世纪法国印象主义画派作品，如反复诵读，读者能勾画出一幅色彩丰富的画面。与此同时也会发现诗歌在音的处理上很巧妙。第一行的[p]音与第二行的[p]音遥相呼应，但其中一个只构成非重读音节；两行末尾均有[au]音，只是前者有辅音[d]，后者没有。第二行中[e]音的重复等都加强了这首短诗的音乐感。