Back to 80: My Literary Life

Fang Minghua recited several sentences in one breath.

"Haha. You have indeed read "The Birds". Then let me ask you again, what are your thoughts on reading Rabindranath Tagore's "The Birds"?"

What a great teacher.

Fang Minghua muttered in his heart, and then continued to answer: ""The Collection of Flying Birds" contains about 300 beautiful untitled poems. The themes are basically grass, fallen leaves, flying birds, stars, rivers, etc."

"The poet has the ability to have a keen insight into nature and society and a wonderful pen that is good at expressing his heart. These short poems, which are like a few words, contain rich thoughts and profound philosophy, showing a fresh, bright, beautiful and meaningful style."

"In fact, part of "The Collection of Birds" was translated by the poet from his collection of Bengali aphorisms, "The Collection of Broken Jade", and the other part was an impromptu English poem written by the poet when he was in Japan in 1910. The poet once praised Japan highly. The simplicity of the haiku, and his Asukashu were clearly influenced by this style of poetry.”

Dong Mo was shocked.

If reading the "Asuka Collection" is quite good, I actually know the history of "Asuka Collection"!

Is this what a former janitor knows? !

Looking at Dong Mo's surprised look, Fang Minghua knew what he was thinking, and said calmly: "Editor Dong, when I was an educated youth, there was an old teacher in that village who jumped in the queue, and he secretly hid the book. Let me borrow it, even this knowledge was told to me by him."

"In addition to "The Birds Collection", there is also "The New Moon Collection"," Fang Minghua added.

I see!

Dong Mo nodded.

"Then it goes without saying that this little poem was written by you."

As he spoke, he took out a crumpled piece of paper from his coat pocket. On it was "Spring" written by Fang Minghua.

"Comrade Xiao Zhang said you wrote it, and I didn't believe it. But now that you say it, I believe it. The style is exactly the same.

Yeah?

Seems to be.

"The writing is not good, I will make you laugh." Fang Minghua was very modest.

"Hey, Comrade Xiao Fang, modesty is a virtue, but excessive modesty is pride! This poem is quite well written. I plan to publish it in the poetry column of the next issue of the magazine. Do you agree?"

Why don't you agree at this time?

Fang Minghua agreed.

Dong Mo rushed away excitedly. Before leaving, he told Fang Minghua to read more and try to write better poems.

After Dong Mo left, Zhang Baofu, who had been silent, hurriedly explained: "Brother Minghua, yesterday there was a literary young man who wanted to go to the editor again, so I used this poem to scare him, but the result was that Editor Dong read it When you arrive, ask me who wrote it, and I tell you your name. Before I can tell you, someone comes to find you."

"It's nothing." Fang Minghua said with a smile: "You should get off work as soon as possible."

Unexpectedly, Zhang Baofu stood still and said, "Brother Minghua, how about you write another song and let me scare those disobedient literary youths?"

This time Fang Minghua did not agree.

It's not that there is nothing, at least I have read a lot of short poems and written them quite well, but if I give another one to Zhang Baofu and use it to bluff people, it is really pretentious.

The young man named Fang Minghua, the doorman, wrote a poem, which was chosen by Editor Dong and will be published in the next issue of "Yanhe" magazine!

The news initially circulated among the editorial staff, but soon spread throughout the magazine.

Some people think that this young man has a malleable talent and if he studies hard and creates hard, he can become a poet in the future.

But some disagree.

Who is a poet if he writes a three-line poem?

The name of a poet is so worthless.

Today in Zhang Pixiang's office, the three leaders of the editorial department were discussing his matter.

Of course the topic is not whether Fang Minghua is a poet, but how to cultivate him.

"What I mean is that since Comrade Xiao Fang has initially shown his talent in poetry, we can temporarily transfer him to our editorial department as an editorial assistant." Dong Mo suggested.

Editorial assistant, in fact, there is no establishment, it is just a temporary position, helping editors to review manuscripts, etc.

In fact, according to Dong Mo's original idea, he might as well be transferred over to be the editor directly.

Fang Minghua was not the first to have this happen. Lu Yao, Wang Xiaoxin, Bai Hua, etc. were all transferred to magazines in this way. Reviewing was secondary, mainly to facilitate their professional creation.

But I felt that others would not agree, so I came up with this temporary solution.

Editor-in-Chief Zhang Pixiang has no objection. Anyway, it does not occupy the staff and does not receive salary in the editorial department. There is also an extra worker - it is training, why not do it?

The other deputy editor-in-chief, Stanley Ho, didn’t have any objections. It wasn’t officially established, so why argue?

But I didn't expect Fang Minghua to disagree.

"You want me to work as an editorial assistant in the editorial department? No, thank you, Editor-in-Chief Dong."

"Why?" Dong Mo was a little surprised.

"I feel that my abilities are limited and I am not competent." Fang Minghua explained.

"Really?" Dong Mo looked at him, a smile suddenly appeared on his face, "Do you think the editorial department is busy with work?"

Fang Minghua chuckled: "Editor-in-Chief Dong, I think the most important thing for me now is to read more books! Write more poems. How can I have so much time in your editorial department?"

This is true.

Dong Mo nodded.

Nowadays, the number of submissions has increased dramatically, especially in the poetry group. It is common to work overtime, reviewing manuscripts, discussing, and sometimes communicating with authors through letters. I am so busy that I really don’t have time to write poems.

"Okay then. I just feel a little wronged to you."

It's nothing to let a very talented young man look after the door.

"Editor-in-Chief Dong, I'm not aggrieved, but I have a small request," Fang Minghua said again.

"any request?"

"Can I borrow some books from the club's library?"

"Oh, I almost forgot about this. No problem! I will tell Zhang Xiufang in the library tomorrow that you can borrow books at will!"

"Thank you very much!"

Finally, Dong Mo left.

Fang Minghua leaned on the chair and hummed.

At first he was envious of working in the editorial department, but when he saw everyone working overtime all day long like a dog, he suddenly lost interest.

Isn't it good to fish at work here? Working three shifts is leisurely,

Why go to the editorial department to be an editor, and the kind that has no staff!

But Dong Mo is a very good person. He looks cold on the surface but is actually a warm-hearted person.

This little poem was published as scheduled in the October poetry column of "Yanhe". Fang Minghua also jumped on the trend and gave himself a pen name - Minghua.

At the same time, I received a royalties of three yuan.

Having worked as a janitor for a magazine for several months, he also knew the price of poetry remuneration—one yuan per line.

For this reason, he specially invited Zhang Baofu to eat a bowl of mutton steamed buns at Lao Ma's steamed bun restaurant at the intersection.

5 cents for a bowl, 5 cents for a steamed bun plus 2 taels of food stamps.

Fang Minghua's life has not changed much since he published a small poem. He still looks at the door and reads books when he has nothing to do. With Dong Mo's words, it is much easier to borrow books from the magazine library.

"Red and Black" and "Notre Dame de Paris". Of course, there are also novels by domestic writers "Xu Mao and His Daughters" and "The Head Teacher".

Of course life has changed a bit.

People from the magazine were coming in and out, and many people took the initiative to say hello to him, unlike the transparent person before.