On This Night cover

On This Night

Rating 3.2
Word count
48K words
Chapters
118
ISBN
9787550033863

Tags

Summary

This is the author's first poetry collection, divided into three parts—in brief, the experiences, reflections, and lived understanding of "youth, middle age, and old age." In poetic language he speaks of a life's pain and struggle, and of the insecurity that forms toward others; neither the author nor the other will easily give way. When the tug-of-war begins, logic can be cast aside altogether; the vortex drives the richness of language, and the imagery and sound are vivid and alive. The structural challenge is also resolved: the author, familiar with his own insecurity and turning this vast insecurity to account, builds it whole—two layers interwoven and superimposed, truly more beautiful the more dangerous. In his poetry, to a large extent, he seeks to replace the old with a new ideal; he also draws on postmodern art, attempting in his poetic creation to explore a path of his own.

Editor's review

As Lu Kang's first poetry collection, *Tonight* builds a timeline of life from three parts—youth, middle age, and old age—yet it does not lay them out in plain sequence; instead, experiences from different stages interweave and overlap. The pain and struggle in the poems, and the insecurity toward others, form a tense tug-of-war: the author neither easily yields to the other nor easily compromises with himself, and logic is set aside in this confrontation while language gains a vortex-like richness, with imagery and sound leaping and vivid. Notably, the author does not avoid the structural challenge but turns his own insecurity into material for building the poems, letting two layers interweave and present the tension of being more beautiful the more dangerous. Under the influence of postmodern art, he tries to replace old forms of expression with a new ideal and to explore a poetic path of his own. This is a book suited to slow reading on quiet nights, to feel the rhythm and beauty language generates out of unease.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers who enjoy contemporary Chinese poetry and are willing to read language experiments closely
  • Middle-aged readers moved by life stages and the experience of time
  • Poetry lovers interested in postmodern writing and in discovering a new poet's path

Not a good fit for

  • Readers who prefer prose or fiction with complete plots and clear narrative
  • Those hoping for light entertainment or chicken-soup-style comfort from poetry
  • First-time readers with little patience for jumpy imagery and defamiliarized language

Reading tips

  1. Read in the order of youth, middle age, and old age, noting changes in tone and imagery across the parts.
  2. Slow down where imagery is dense; feel the rhythm of the language first and don't rush to literal explanation.
  3. Keep paper and pen to mark recurring words and images, and observe how the two layers interweave and overlap.
  4. Read only three to five poems at a time, leaving room to savor them and avoiding fatigue from reading straight through.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 龙青:零安全感的渗透及逃离
  3. 第一辑 亚克斯坦丁的雨
  4. 银狐
  5. 这些日子
  6. 探视母亲
  7. 我对死亡丧失了恭顺和想象
  8. 绝对幸福的人们
  9. 洗手的神
  10. 谈论一个逝者的时间很短
  11. 描述一只年月久远的柑
  12. 趁年轻嫁了
  13. 在今夜
  14. 书店
  15. 给工程师金多虾的人类简史自画像
  16. 亚克斯坦丁的雨
  17. 看布考斯基的中文译本有感
  18. 革命,或低级生活
  19. 门
  20. 马非用粗绳用心做了一个结
  21. 中央线,从高田马场到西
  22. 昨天
  23. 致妻子
  24. 休息日
  25. 你的母亲当然也有年轻的时候这还用说
  26. 你在听
  27. 一个旧日子
  28. 他想
  29. 第五元素
  30. 诗人的来信
  31. 阅读世界的方法
  32. 这会儿去补锅
  33. 有对象的断章
  34. 诉说一个粉红色的午后
  35. 深夜使我们免于窒息
  36. 打开你的窗户
  37. 夜深人静
  38. 第二辑 下过雨了
  39. 去世者
  40. 两个交谈的女人
  41. 已经有寒意侵扰鞋尖
  42. 谁在暗喜日常生活的严酷
  43. 邪恶城邦
  44. 某人受他狂想支配
  45. 只谈幽暗、乌鸦、湖畔樱花的诗篇
  46. 只谈衣裳、可是、点灯使者的诗篇
  47. 只谈猎人、风王、思想公厕的诗篇
  48. 只谈电视、编年史、内宫文学的诗篇
  49. 只谈姿态、风筝、三女神的诗篇
  50. 只谈光明、偷看食道、不迁的诗篇
  51. 只谈人种、午睡女郎、白玉苦瓜的诗篇
  52. 下过雨了
  53. 爱到不行的传说
  54. 光
  55. 约好
  56. 寻欢之歌
  57. 仿写
  58. 我多次想到死亡很难终结
  59. 一生
  60. 上山,下山
  61. 失眠备忘录
  62. 梦见风
  63. 要你听半夜时的水声
  64. 离开
  65. 守夏
  66. 缓刑者
  67. 在浓重的夜色中我提灯穿巷而行
  68. 深夜时读诗的惊讶
  69. 如果说醒来也是一种生活
  70. 此时和谁一道翻身起来
  71. 山庄
  72. 燕
  73. 松涛
  74. 前夜
  75. 猫吟
  76. 当年吟
  77. “晚安”备忘录
  78. 命若悬丝
  79. 好日子备忘录
  80. 雪天备忘录
  81. 卡斯特罗备忘录
  82. 我后来回忆,我后来……
  83. 夜间的身体
  84. 梦斗
  85. 二月二十八日:雪
  86. 夜飞行
  87. 残留的
  88. 追赶火车
  89. 重合备忘录
  90. 为虚无写下一只鹰
  91. 裸体
  92. 古代铁路巡视员备忘录
  93. 第三辑 整夜大雨后
  94. 后半生
  95. 当持刀的时间
  96. 午后趋暗
  97. 整夜大雨后
  98. 关于消失
  99. 小村庄
  100. 无月
  101. 第二梦
  102. 坐等
  103. 众女声
  104. 今年的环球观察
  105. 寂静
  106. 渡
  107. 芷园
  108. 在别的国家
  109. 潜逃的君主
  110. 一旦动身就等于结束
  111. 梦
  112. 在壁炉边
  113. 苏格拉底的第三次审判
  114. 钟
  115. 一些树
  116. 哥哥和我
  117. 雪地之狐
  118. 朱必圣:叙事的乌托邦

FAQ

Is this collection suitable for readers with no grounding in poetry?
It can be read, but expectations need adjusting. The language is jumpy and the imagery dense, and it does not aim for smooth narrative. First-time readers need not decode every line; follow the sound and images first, then return to the structure. If you seldom read modern poetry, start with shorter poems with clearer imagery.
Do the three parts correspond to the author's actual life stages?
The materials show the collection is divided into youth, middle age, and old age, presenting the experiences, reflections, and lived understanding of different stages. This is a division in the poetry's structure and should not be read directly as autobiography; readers should focus more on the differences in tone, perspective, and feeling across the parts.
What are the two layers mentioned in the book?
The materials mention that the author builds structure from his own insecurity, letting two layers interweave and overlap. The specific layers need to be felt in reading; roughly, they can be understood as the interweaving of different timelines or levels of experience, giving the poems tension between danger and beauty rather than a single-line progression.

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About the author

鲁亢 Author

Lu Kang is a writer about whom relatively limited information is publicly available. What can be confirmed is that his representative work is "Tonight" (Zai Jinye); one work by him is included in the collection, and it is commonly classified as modern poetry. Because his dates of birth and death, nationality, education, and writing career are not clearly documented, his biographical background must remain open, and readers and researchers should avoid excessive speculation based on the existing entry. Judging from the available material, Lu Kang's writing is chiefly concentrated in the field of modern poetry. Both the title and the generic classification of "Tonight" suggest a tendency toward an interplay of nighttime experience and lyrical introspection, with a language that may lean toward concision and restraint while attending to the creation of emotional atmosphere. On the whole, he is an author with limited public documentation who awaits further discovery, and a fuller discussion and evaluation of his work's value and literary position will require more texts and accumulated research.

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