口语与文学语言:新诗的一个关键问题——兼与郑敏教授商榷

Spoken and Literary Languages: A Key Problem of New Poetry ——Concurrent Discussion With Prof. Zheng Min

新诗的发展的一个历史传统,就是将胡适所提倡的白话如何由一种散文化的口语发展为文学语言。这方面的成就应该说是确定无疑的。因此,新诗不仅是有自己的文学语言,而且已经有了相当成熟的文学语言。杰出的诗人创造自己的语言。白话已经提供了新诗写作基本的一种需求,一个诗人不应该去怀疑一种语言是否已经可以达到表达的需要,而应该怀疑自己是否能够用写作来创造出满足这种表达需要的语言。

A tradition in the historical development of new poetry is what Hu Shi advocated that vernacular should somehow be developed from a prosified spoken language into a literary one. And the achievement in this respect should be taken undoubtedly. Therefore, new poetry has not only the literary language of its own, but quite a mature one at that. Outstanding poets create their own language. Vernacular has provided a basic need for the composition of new poems. A poet should doubt not whether the language has reached the level required for the expression but whether he could create by way of his composition the language that meets the requirement of such expression.