读张立中教授的《长江赋》有感
作者/廖世敬
一首短诗需要多少诗意才能写得入心？
一首长赋需要多大胸怀才能构建完成？
今天我拜读了张立中教授的《长江赋》，中英文双语鸿篇，出自他的一笔之墨！这是一个十分了得的作品！
我向来欣赏张教授的作品，因为他的作品最能引起我这个教书匠的共鸣，其双语也是我作为一名大学英语教师最难得的高级学习资料。张教授分享的这个大作自然是我的最爱！事实上他写的长江就是我的最爱。
张立中教授在他的题记中说到他是长江的孩子，家住长江边，喝着长江水长大，玩着长江水成人。他创作《长江赋》是为了献给母亲河的。寥寥数语勾起了我对长江的思念！
我对长江也有着一样的情感，这份情感从地理的角度来说比黄河还近！
我老家小河就是宋代诗人辛弃疾笔下的郁孤台下清江水！那是流过滕王阁、倾进鄱阳湖、从石钟山汇入长江的清江水。
我的新婚蜜月之旅就是坐列车专程去武汉、渡汉江、漂长江、问两湖、望庐山、继而一泻千里借江水之浩荡、一览两岸风光！武汉三镇好比游览水乡、九江故又见到周都督点将、金陵古城莫愁湖的莫愁女、上海白渡桥上一片好风光！那些都是长江水滋润的文明典范，是写不尽的长江水最美的模样！
此时拜读张教授的《长江赋》是何等感受可想而知。
其实，要点评张教授这篇《长江赋》是需要功底深厚的人才够资格的！其中内容涉及古今中外、诗词歌赋、天文地理……我最珍视他这位已经侨居海外的大教授那份游子情——一份只有身在国外心系长江的游子通过文字、使用笔墨才能抒发出来的最美感情！
今天我之所以敢写这篇博文点评就是因为我理解字里行间这份感情，同时也是出于我个人爱好——爱好张立中教授的这个作品、爱好笔下的这条长江！
我爱好张立中的作品是长期以来养成的习惯！自从上世纪八十年代末在墨尔本大学的一次国际计算机语言学学术会议上认识张立中教授以来，我就感觉到其不俗之才、非凡之能，其中英文双语语言教学、语言学研究、计算机辅助教学的研究和实践，等等技能与应用能力都是超乎常人值得我学习。
最近几年来，由于本人对诗歌的兴趣让我更加欣赏张立中教授诗意盎然的生活！显然，走进诗境中的张立中教授，我便真正感受到他的这种勤耕诗词歌赋的业余爱好才是真正的“人间正道”！在这道上遇见张教授的《长江赋》那必然是一种陶醉！
长江是我们的母亲河，是古今中外华裔文人墨客笔下争相吟诵的对象。张教授的《长江赋》在历史长河中的地位将是如何我不敢说，但是，我相信像这样一篇由在长江边长大、从海外游子角度写长江歌赋的人创作出来的大作一定会给长江加分的！
长江很长，张立中教授的《长江赋》也很长！从源头写到入海、从远古写到当今世界。
长江很宽，张立中教授的《长江赋》也很宽！从文人墨客诗词歌赋也写两岸山水风光。其气势让我联想到范仲淹笔下的长江“衔远山，吞长江，浩浩汤汤，横无际涯”。
张立中教授的《长江赋》恰似长江之水浩浩荡荡！全文采用四字警句形式、洋洋洒洒近千字、如流水一般，平平静静之中含有格调的高雅！每一个层次都有着长江的韵味、每一个小段都写出了长江的灵感。
上游险兮、中游博大多奇；下游妙哉、像仙境一般秀丽。这长江流域自古就是经济中心、一派富庶，的确就像赋中所说是人间天堂。
文章内容丰富、妙语连珠，字字珠玑！读罢甚是享受！
"Ode to the Yangtze River" : Poem Review
By Shijing Liao
(Embrace the passion and bilingual linguistic specialist and professor Lizhong Zhang’s long poem — set in Yangtze River and written entirely in verse — just might win you over.)
How much passion should a short poem hold so as to touch reader’s deep heart?
How big-minded should a poet be so as to construct and complete a long ode?
Today I finished reading Professor Zhang Lizhong’s "Ode to Yangtze River", a bilingual long poem written and translated by himself all on his own! This is a very impressive and wonderful masterpiece of ode!
I have always admired Professor Zhang for his achievements in education and lifestyle, because his works can resonate most with me as a senior language teacher, and his rich experiences and resources of bilingual teaching and research are also the distinguished and valuable advanced learning resources to me as a College English teacher. This masterpiece of Professor Zhang’s is undoubtedly listed in my favorite! In fact, the Yangtze River written by him is itself my favorite.
Professor Zhang Lizhong said in his foreword to the verse that he was a child of the Yangtze River, living by the Yangtze River, growing up by drinking its water and having fun by playing with the river water. He created "Ode to the Yangtze River" for the Mother River with his passion. And his lyrical passionate words have evoked my yearning for the Yangtze River!
In fact I have the same belief and sentiment towards the Yangtze River, which is closer than the Yellow River from a geographical point of view!
This ode arouses my homesickness. It seems making me missing my birthplace and its beautiful creek flowing out of the hilly hometown which is well known to the world due to the poetic line “Limpid river flows below Terrace Yugu” written by Song Dynasty poet Xin Qiji! It is that Qingjiang Creek’s water that flows through the Tengwang Pavilion which is famous for the A Tribute to King Teng's Pavilion by Wang Bo in Tang Dynasty, poured into the second largest Poyang Lake, then flows and merge into the Yangtze River from Shizhongshan where you can hear the drumming sounds described in “The Stone Bell Mountain” by Su Shi in North Song Dynasty.
To be honest, Yantze River is my lover where my love started romantically, historically and symbolically. My honeymoon trip was all along the beautiful river. My passion is there. My newlywed and I took a train to Wuhan, crossing the Han River, drifting down the Yangtze River, all the way down and down to the East Sea. We passed by the two biggest freshwater lakes in China, looked at Lushan Mountain, and then traveled thousands of miles together with the the mighty beauty of the cheerful and wonderful waters of the river. A glimpse of the scenery on both sides of the river is still striking in the memories! In Wuhan, I ate all over the three towns just like visiting the water towns all around Jiannan; in Jiujiang, I seemed seeing the commander of the Governor of Zhou Yu giving commands while drumming up; in Nanjing, I sympathised the Mo Chou girl by Mochou Lake in the ancient city of Jinling, and I enjoyed and read the beautiful scenery on the Baidu Bridge in Shanghai! Those are all examples of civilization that are nurtured and nourished by the Yangtze River water, the most beautiful parts of the Yangtze River water that is endlessly and magically described in historical verses and artworks!
At this time, you may be able to imagine how it feels for me to read Professor Zhang's "Ode to the Yangtze River".
In fact, to make any comments on Professor Zhang's "Ode to the Yangtze River" is not an easy job. In my opinion, it requires the qualified commentators and poetry reviewers to deal with it with profound and professional knowledge! Professor Zhang’s ode is rich in content, while covers so many aspects like ancient and modern China, related to foreign countries, poetry and arts, astronomy and geography... And definitely I cherish his wandering love of the successful professor who has lived abroad like a wanderer in the alien world but still with a heart all for the Yangtze River. Professor Zhang truly and terrifically express it through Chinese and English words with his own pen and black and white ink. His most beautiful and passionate feelings come out like this beautiful verse and very much like the romantic river water!
The reason why I dare to face the challenge and write this blog comment today is because I myself can read between the lines and understand the feelings out there. And also it is out of my personal hobby as a fan of Professor Zhang Lizhong and as a worshipper of the Yangtze River!
I should say that enjoying reading Zhang Lizhong's poetic pieces is kind of my habit as well as a hobby. This habit or hobby has developed in my life for a long time! Since I met Professor Zhang Lizhong at an inaugural international computer linguistics conference at the University of Melbourne in the late 1980s, I have felt his extraordinary talent and extraordinary ability, including English bilingual language teaching, linguistics research, and computer-assisted Teaching research and practice, and other skills and application abilities are beyond ordinary people and he is a valuable model worthy of me to learn from.
In recent years, due to my increasing interest in poetry, I start to pay more attention to and to appreciate the poetic life of Professor Zhang Lizhong even more! Obviously, when Professor Zhang Lizhong walked into the realm of poetry, I really felt that his hobby of diligently cultivating and farming on poetry is the “real and righteous way in the ridiculous world"! It must be a kind of intoxication to meet Professor Zhang's "Ode to the Yangtze River" on this road!
The Yangtze River is our mother river, and it is the object and theme described and scripted by Chinese literati and overseas literati in ancient and modern times. I dare not say, here and now, what the historical status of Professor Zhang’s "Ode to the Yangtze River" will be in the long history, but I believe that, It will definitely have positive points added to the Yangtze River, because such a masterpiece like this “Ode the Yangtze River” is created by someone who grew up on the Yangtze River and from the perspective of an overseas wanderer!
The Yangtze River is very long, and Professor Zhang Lizhong’s "Ode to the Yangtze River" is also very long! From the original start to the open sea, from ancient times to the present world, the ode worships every drop of this river and every stone alone the river.
The Yangtze River is very wide, and Professor Zhang Lizhong's "Ode to the Yangtze River" is also very wide! It covers from the well known literati, and the poets, in addition to the sacrificed scenery on both sides of the river. Its momentum mighty beauty and remind me of Northern Song Dynasty poet Fan Zhongyan's poetic writing of the Yangtze River, "It looks as holding the remote mountains in mouth and swallowing the Yangtze River. It is so vast, mighty and boundless! Over the lake the sky appears bright at morning and overcast in the evening; the scenery is so spectacular and majestic as people's expected. Those are the grand sight....".
Professor Zhang Lizhong’s "Ode to the Yangtze River" resembles the mighty waters of the Yangtze River! The full text adopts the form of four-character aphorisms, eloquently inscribed in nearly a thousand words, like the running river water, and contains elegance of style in calmness! Each section has the charm of the Yangtze River, and each subsection expresses the inspiration of the Yangtze River.
The upper part of the river is described in uncultivated natural conditions, and the middle is mostly unique and extraordinary; the lower section is like a fairyland: wonderful and beautiful and fertile. This Yangtze River basin has been an economic center since ancient times, and it is a kind of rich and prosperous in Chinese culture and literature.
In summary, Professor Zhang’s ode is rich in content, witty in words, and every word tells the right story and reads my mind! I have really enjoyed reading it! . I’m happy with the way it expresses my feelings because there’s something so deep and so passionate about it.
(July 10, 2021 in Sydney )
