Li Shangyin and the Art of Poetic Ambiguity ; Li Shangyin in umetnost poetične dvoumnosti

Abstract

Li Shangyin (813–858), one of the most respected, mysterious, ambiguous and provocative of Chinese poets, lived during the late Tang period, when the glorious Tang dynasty was beginning to decline. It was a time of social riots, political division and painful general insecurity. Li Shangyin is famous as a highly original and committed poet who developed a unique style full of vague allusions and unusual images derived from the literary past (the traditional canon, myths and legends) as well as from nature and personal experience. The second important feature of his poetry is a mysteriousness which finally leads to ambiguity. Ambiguity plays an essential role in most of his renowned poems, and he uses it to superbly connect present and past, reality and fantasy, and history and mythology. Thus, ambiguity and obscurity, respectively, often engender different interpretations among Chinese critics. These interpretations reflect the poems' imaginative qualities, hypotheses and contradictions. Since each interpretive direction emphasizes but a single aspect of the poet's character, it is more fitting to understand his ambiguous poems in symbolic terms. Such understanding entails that the meaning of the poem is not limited to one interpretation; rather, the poem's poetic landscape opens itself up to various interpretations.Li Shangyin is actually most popular for his melancholic love poetry that reveals his ambiguous attitude to love. In this poetry, love is shrouded in a secret message. On the one hand, we can sense his moral disapproval of a secret but hopeless love; on the other, we can sense his passion. This leads to a paradox: the pleasing temptations of an illicit romance also exact a high price. In these love poems Li investigates various aspects of the worlds of passion which stoke in him feelings of rapture, satisfaction, joy and hope as well as feelings of doubt, frustration, despair and even thoughts of death. ; Li Shangyin (813–858), eden najbolj občudovanih, skrivnostnih, dvoumnih in provokativnih kitajskih pesnikov, je živel v poznem Tangu (9. stoletje), v obdobju zatona nekdaj veličastne dinastije Tang, ki so ga zaznamovali družbeni nemiri, politična razklanost in mučna vsesplošna negotovost. Slovi kot nadvse izviren in angažiran pesnik, ki je razvil svojski slog, nabit z nejasnimi, težko razumljivimi aluzijami in nenavadnimi podobami, ki jih je črpal iz literarne preteklosti, tj. iz tradicionalnega kanona, mitov in legend, ter iz narave in lastnih izkušenj. Druga značilnost njegove poezije je skrivnostnost, ki nazadnje vodi v dvoumnost. Ta igra osrednjo vlogo v večini njegovih pesmi. V njih mojstrsko povezuje sedanjost s preteklostjo, resnično z namišljenim in zgodovinsko z mitološkim. In prav ta dvoumnost oz. nejasnost pogosto poraja njihove različne, na domišljiji, domnevah in protislovjih temelječe interpretacije posameznih razlagalcev. Ker vsaka poudarja zgolj eno plat pesnikovega značaja, je bolj primerno tisto razumevanje Lijevih dvoumnih pesmi, ki temelji na simbolni ravni, ko pesem sočasno pomeni več kot le eno stvar oz. ko razširi in odpre svojo pomensko pokrajino različnim razlagam.Li Shangyin je pravzaprav najbolj znan po svoji melanholični ljubezenski poeziji, ki razkriva njegov dvoumen odnos do ljubezni, zavit v skrivno sporočilo. Na eni strani je mogoče čutiti njegovo moralno neodobravanje skrivne, vroče, a brezupne ljubezni, na drugi pa njegovo strastno poželenje, kar vodi v medsebojno napetost obeh nasprotnih vidikov, v paradoks. To pomeni, da privlačnost prepovedane ljubezni zahteva visoko ceno. To so pesmi, v katerih Li proučuje različne plati svetov strasti, ki sprožajo v njem tako občutke ljubezenske vzhičenosti, zadovoljstva, radosti in upanja kot tudi občutke dvoma, razočaranja, obupa in celo misli na smrt.