In Thailand, there is a group of Chinese poetry practitioners who keep turning their eyes to the motherland, expressing their inner love for China with poetry with their infatuation and fervent feelings.

They are fellow members of the poetry club of "Little Poetry Mill" in Thailand.

　　On July 1, 2006, under the planning of Lin Huanzhang and Zeng Xin, the "Little Poetry Mill" poetry society in Thailand was established, with Zeng Xin as the convener. Kujue and Mo Fan are eight people.

This salon-style poetry club was established in a hexagonal pavilion.

The gazebo is located in the garden of the newly completed "Little Red Building" by the convener Zeng Xin, which establishes a relaxed and elegant atmosphere for the activities of the poetry club.

The form of activity of the Poetry Club is to gather irregularly in a fixed place to discuss poetic skills by creating short poems within six lines, and to discuss the aesthetics and theoretical issues of the style of small poems in order to expand its influence.

Since its establishment, the members of "Little Poetry Mill" have continued to expand. Jingying, Wen Xiaoyun, and Dan Dan joined in 2013, Fan Jun and Yang Zhao joined in 2017, and a new member Zhang Yongqing was added in 2020.

　　The small poem style in modern poetry has been developed for about a hundred years.

Since the 1920s when Bing Xin, Zong Baihua, etc. created and led the creation of small poems, this style has shown a trend from the outside to the inside, from dynamic to static, from learning and borrowing from western poetry to learning from oriental poetry represented by India and Japan. development history.

For more than a hundred years, there have been different opinions on the stylistic norms of small poems. Some advocate the following fourteen lines, some advocate imitating Western twelve-line poems, and some even strictly require no more than three lines.

But no matter what kind of proposition, there is one thing that remains unchanged, that is "small".

　　"Little Poetry Mill" inherits the tradition of Chinese new literature and poetry, grasps the "small" to make a fuss, and forms a unique artistic feature.

Poet and poetry critic Long Peter commented: "The short poems in their minds are at most six lines, and no longer than six lines. Their writing has a conscious binding force, which makes the works under their pens more concentrated in poetic thinking. , It is more rigorous in structure, and more refined in writing.” For example, Kujue’s poem, “The morning sun eats up the night / My fish swims in the ink pool”, between light and dark, just two sentences will make you like it. As a bamboo painter, he sketched out his feelings when he "painted bamboo in the morning".

The little poems in the "mill" are often the sentences "grinded" by poets from life and life.

　　Of course, when it comes to each poem, the final number of lines, whether a line is divided into sentences, and how to divide it into sections are determined by the poet according to his specific needs.

Under the premise of "no longer longer than six lines", there is no uniform and rigid requirement for the lines and festivals, and the number of words used in each line. Between strictness and leniency, a relatively orderly and swaying style is naturally created. From a visual perspective, this is already an aesthetic poetic style that is constant but changing.

　　It is said that poetry is a sentimental style, and the "mill" poem is no exception.

The persistence of Thai Chinese in Chinese writing stems from their longing for cultural blood, and China is the root and soul of their deep emotions.

Most of the poets in the "mill" are not young, and this kind of longing is more concentrated and deep.

Zeng Xin said to herself, "Overseas Chinese are old, and they always like to find their hometown in their dreams." A "Hometown Road" expresses the poet's nostalgia: "Since there are oracle bone inscriptions, there are roads paved with words, no matter what it is. No matter how long / Just turn around and walk along / You can find your hometown”.

However, Fanjun's "Hometown" is small and direct, "Hometown/is Kafka's castle, but I can't get in/I can't get out", which fully expresses the yearning of overseas Chinese for China.

Family affection, love and other true feelings in the world are also well presented in the works of Bofu, Imaishi, Mo Fan and others.

　　The reason why the poems of "Little Poetry Mill" are so charming is that it achieves "thousands of miles away".

Flour comes from rice, and flour comes from wheat. The "nutritional value" in their poems is "ground" in the "mill".

Poets chew images, ruminate and filter, and refine words, so as to develop literary emotions and reasoning.

　　In recent years, the Poetry Society has held new book releases, special speeches and other activities in Bangkok every year, which have been well received.

Most of the members of the "Little Poetry Mill" poetry club are members of the Alumni Association of Chinese Universities in Thailand. With the support of the association, the poetry club held the "'Belt and Road' and Thai Chinese Literature in Bangkok, Thailand, and Nanjing, China in 2016 and 2017 respectively. International Academic Symposium" and "International Symposium on Small Poems and Small Poetry Mill Works" have promoted the exploration and dissemination of small poetry styles.

Since its establishment 16 years ago, the poems and exploratory theoretical articles of the members of "Little Poetry Mill" have been published in newspapers and magazines in Thailand, China and other places. At the same time, the Poetry Club publishes a volume of "Little Poetry Mill" every year without interruption.

　　The poets of "Little Poetry Mill" are loyal to their own life experience and perception, and consciously strive to practice the style of small poetry, conveying their love for Chinese culture and deep affection for China, which has positive significance in the field of Chinese literature in the world.

(The author is a researcher at the Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences, editor-in-chief of "World Chinese Literature Forum")

　　(Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition, Page 07, December 1, 2022)