知更鸟（The European Robin）

European Robin

Today is the birthday Fu Qiang. He was born in 1969, the year of chicken according to Chinese calendar and he is forty-four years old now.

In his blog, there is a new poem, titled Story of Chilling Winter. Among its three little stanzas, there are verses as such:

...The cold wind
        is swirling up with dropping leaves, does it
        hold an intention, that to light a fire
        by drilling into the wood?
        ...

Astonishing imagery. It has not only described the coldness of the wind, but also the solitude and loneliness of the natural world, when the leaves and trees, which were once prosperous, are now cease to live with their withered faces. Furthermore, the readers would not fail to perceive the sentiment of nostalgia, the slight self-mocking and irony, when the ancient surviving skill and wisdom was awkwardly appeared in the brain of the post-industrial modern time.Also, we would not fail to notice that the sharp property, which can drill into the hard wood for lighting a fire, belongs to the cold wind, which is not only able to carry up the dropping leaves into the air, but even able to swirl like a functioning drill. A drill, by definition, should have no problem for cutting into bones. Nevertheless, the suspect, which is causing damage to our body, or mind, is probably not only the bad weather or season, but also the lost sense of humanity in the diseased world.

        This kind of verse, delivers a picture into my brain, in which the poet was standing in the cold winter wind. He was resting his hands onto the handles of his bicycle and standing with a hesitant posture. From such posture, one is not easy to say, if he wants to move on. From the shapes of his arms, one is also not sure wether they are straight or bend. 

        Perhaps there was never hesitance appeared in his consciousness. The only thing that caused such impression, was that there is a too heavy burden which is constructed with too many proud principles,that needs him to carry as a company in action.When an elegant soul, which is willing to self-exile, is forced to face the responsibility of the secular world, the moral paradox that he has to bear, would be much more than the common people, and hence, he would have to bear the harder struggle inevitably, too.

Creatures, which are madding crowd, even if they are not strong enough, physically or mentally, would earn the natural inclination of kind-hearted people, not to mention those who possess overflowing talent.

I am in favor of this kind of poem. Quiet, without remarkable big words, its charm is like chanting with soft voice and drinking in the fashion of tender kisses, or, the color of the light ink drops seeping and spreading on the fine calligraphy paper slowly.

When my husband came home from work, he opened the parcel, which was received in the daytime, took out a velvet Robin from it and handed it to me. The bird has got five colors. its beak and eyeballs are black; the redness on its face and chest, looks like the inside of the old bricks which has mixed too much soil from their production, on its forehead, there is a grayish blue milky way,the abdomen area looks like the unpolished rice skin, which sets up a sense of low tune wealth and warmth,and his head, back, the surface of its wings and tail feathers, match the other parts of the body with the settle and calm quality of brown.All colors are not tempting. The combination of them however, creates the subtlety of an unusual beauty.When one presses its back, it can sing. Not noisy, chirp chirp, very pleasant.

Give me the bird as a surprising present, my husband said, the reason was only because it can sing and looks cute. He wants to make me happy. His nice intention is well received certainly. Other than thanks, I also asked him, do you remember that there is a book from the 60s last century, which is called To Kill a Mockingbird? It has been reproduced as a film too. The Chinese translation of it title is 《杀死一只知更鸟》。知更鸟，is Robin in Chinese. Thus, although this bird is not necessarily identical to that bird, the term 知更鸟, with its semantic association, is often applied as a symbol of those public intellectuals, who are sharp in thought and having broad vision and foresight on social matters.

This extra information from me, has seemingly brought extra joy to my husband.