記憶與想像──論陳千武、白萩詩的生死沉思

Memory and Imagination：On the Meditation of Life and Death–Poetry from Chen Qian Wu versus Bai Qiu

陳千武曾以「台灣特別志願兵」身份，參與太平洋戰爭，被俘虜於集中營，其詩佈滿二戰記憶，以及瀕死體驗。白萩出生於全面抗日那年，從未親歷戰爭，唯自《蛾之死》開始，貫穿整體詩路歷程，死亡主題不曾消失過。依附著具體記憶，死亡宛如夢魘復現迴響，從而彰顯出陳千武堅強的生之意志；憑藉著抽象的追問與深掘，白萩的死亡意識傾向知性思辨，絕大部分來自於冷靜的逼視和顫慄的靈視。兩人同為「笠」詩社創辦人，前者屬「跨越語言的一代」，後者係戰後才開始創作，而其生命意識、死亡觀照又呈顯不小的差異性。

Chen Qian Wu’s poetry has been suffused with the memory of World War II and near-death experience due to his prison of war while as a ''Taiwan Special Volunteer Soldier'', taking part in the Pacific War. Bai Qiu was born during the Second Sino-Japanese War but had never experienced war. However, death started to become the main theme of his poetry since “The Death of Moth. With the concrete memory, death seemed to be everlasting nightmares that lightened on the strong will to live. Via abstract exploration and digging out, Bai Qiu’s death consciousness tended to intellectual thinking and mainly derived from coolly intent watch and tremblingly spiritual look. Both of Chen and Bai were cofounders of Li poetry organization. Chen belonged to the “Generation Crossing Language” and Bai began to compose after World War II. They showed their major differences in life consciousness and death observation.