# 凝聚成为渊潭，平铺成为湖泊



## rae1

Hello everyone,
Here is a poetical passage by Shen Congwen about regarding writing as a kind of emotional gymnastics:
这可说是一种“体操”，属于精神或情感那方面的。一种使情感“凝聚成为渊潭，平铺成为湖泊”的体操。一种“扭曲文字试验它的韧性，重摔文字试验它的硬性”的体操。
While I have no difficulties with the second part of the metaphor, (which, I suppose, is something along the lines of "bending words to test their flexibility, hurling them to test their strength"), the first part (“凝聚成为渊潭，平铺成为湖泊”) puzzles me. Literal translation makes no sense. "It's a kind of gymnastics that lets transform "the stagnance (of feeling?) into a deep pond, the flat path (of feeling?) into lakes". I'm afraid I'm painfully missing the point. Maybe some allusion here?


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## I am a Chinese boy

Roughly explaining, 凝聚成为渊潭，平铺成为湖泊 is just another metaphor,  which likens Writing to some shape which water can shape into, such as water condensation into abyss, which you can think of as a way to express that WORDS/language can be utilized as beautiful and flexible as possible.

Frankly, This is a hard question to expound at the first sight of it. I felt scared in the beginning as you can imagine. lol


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## Ghabi

Hello *rae1* and welcome to the forum. Both 凝聚 and 平铺 are verbs here, thus "it's a kind of gymnastics that condenses feelings into a deep pond and flattens them into a lake".


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## rae1

I am a Chinese boy said:


> Roughly explaining, 凝聚成为渊潭，平铺成为湖泊 is just another metaphor,  which likens Writing to some shape which water can shape into, such as water condensation into abyss, which you can think of as a way to express that WORDS/language can be utilized as beautiful and flexible as possible.


Thank you for your answer! Could you please elaborate a bit more on the grammar of that passage? (In Chinese or English, as it suits you).
As I see it:
使 making
情感 feeling's
“凝聚 frozen state
成为 transform into
渊潭 abyss
平铺 (and its) flatness
成为 transform into
湖泊 (deep) lake
So in the end it would mean something like "making a numb and flat (or straightforward) feeling (or emotion) deep and vast"
What is the meaning of 平铺? Is it a physical "path" or just a way of describing a writer's style? "Transforming a path into a lake" sounds scary.
PS I was googling the phrase up and saw it is widely cited in Chinese articles. So I assume those writers and critics understand it pretty well. To me, it has a touch of 禅 to it.


Ghabi said:


> Both 凝聚 and 平铺 are verbs here,


Oh, thank you!
I see my mistake now.
So, having a "flat as a lake" feeling is a good thing? Like, it being open to an eye and easy for a pen to follow?


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## Skatinginbc

使情感「凝聚成潭、平鋪成泊」的體操
凝聚 (verb): 凝結聚集 congeal, cohere, condense
潭: deep pools or lakes, e.g., 日月潭
使情感凝聚成潭 ==> 讓情感的表達具有凝聚力 (coherent, 譬如, 把表達類似情感的字詞擺在一起), 如淵潭般地深濃 (deep/profound, and dense/intense)。

平鋪 (verb): 平展鋪開 spread out flat (make plain, make easy to perceive or understand)
泊: swamps, or shallow, eutrophic lakes, e.g., 羅布泊
使情感平鋪成泊 ==> 讓情感以平鋪直敘的方式表達出來, 如泊澤般既具有豐富生態(豐富的內容細節)也淺顯容易捉摸。

體操：身體的操練, 這裡指 brain exercise.


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## I am a Chinese boy

rae1 said:


> What is the meaning of 平铺? Is it a physical "path" or just a way of describing a writer's style? "Transforming a path into a lake" sounds scary.


The "平铺" is never used to describe some physical path in Chinese language. It is the writing ability, it is related to a writer's skill of "word of choice" for an article.
平铺成为湖泊 simply does not mean "Transforming a path into a lake". "凝聚成为渊潭，平铺成为湖泊" means "because the writer is so knowledgeable(esp. in literacy/word of choice),  the writer is able to select/pick every great word which he/she fancies as he/she wants. Then, the ability of his great word of choice is described as "凝聚成为渊潭，平铺成为湖泊" which means, the writer can make his word gathering together to give a reader a strong impact when reading; meanwhile, the writer can also select a group of words which can show a very peaceful perspective/vista in front of a reader. The above explanation means, the writer can utilize words as perfectly as possible to get a reader to enjoy/appreciate and be involved in his "scenario" created by his nicely picked words.


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## fyl

Others have explained well but I want to add my understanding and/or make it clearer:
凝聚 (congeal and gather) and 平铺(spread out) are antonyms. 渊潭 (deep) and 湖泊 (shallow) are also antonyms in some sense.
Basically, the sentence means a writer has the ability to turn emotions into an arbitrary shape s/he wants, and another Chinese word to describe that is 收放自如.


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## rae1

Thank you everyone for your answers! I think I got it now


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## retrogradedwithwind

扭曲或许能测测韧性，重摔应该测不出来硬性……

渊潭湖泊都可以凝聚或平铺……

这么说有点强词夺理了……

反正觉得这俩比喻都不好……

OP问的这句，其实是使情感凝聚成为渊潭，使情感平铺成为湖泊。不要被双引号给误导了。


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## Skatinginbc

Let 情感 = X
情感可用平鋪的方式來表達 (類似 X = 1 + 1+ 1+ 1+ 1)
同樣的這份情感也可用凝聚的方式來表達 (類似 X = 5)
兩者所表達的都是相同的情感 X = 1+1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 5

Let 情感 = 麵團 = X
麵團可壓成平鋪式的薄皮 X = 1+ 1 + 1 + 1 + 1
同樣的這個麵團也可擠成凝聚式的硬球 X = 5
麵皮可以包餡, 捏扯出各種形狀, 考驗其韌性 (測試連貫性 ==> 東拉西扯說一大堆是不是還能保持連貫性?)
麵球可以摔地, 考驗其硬性 (測試強度與接受度 ==> 把文字硬生生地摔在讀者面前, 會不會太唐突, 還是可以達到強烈效果?)

平鋪的特徵是覆蓋面積之廣大, 靠覆蓋之廣泛 (也就是我前面所說的「豐富的內容細節」), 來表達某種情感。
同樣的這份情感, 也可用凝聚的方式來表達, 其特徵是深厚強硬, 小小一顆彈球(簡單幾個字), 砸在身上(進入大腦), 會痛, 會哭, 會觸目驚心。

淵潭 (深刻；重力切割地面穿入地心、深重的情感穿入人心)
湖泊 (廣泛； 幅員廣大, 勾起形形色色卻又相關的情緒).


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## retrogradedwithwind

我说不好，主要是因为，1硬了也不一定抗摔，比如钻石，2渊一般比较深还可以凝聚一下，潭不行，要我写，这句就写成凝聚成渊平铺成湖，或者聚可成渊散可成湖，3其实这俩比喻就是说用尽各种手段表达情感，但真的细究，却又说不出来各个比喻到底是什么手段。

如果还要接着挑毛病，那就是这个体操是关于情感还是文字的，有些混乱。


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## coolfool

... a kind of emotions as / as if / like water, converging on abyss, settles down and, diverging from chasm, forms lake.


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## yulia12777

不少文章並無何等哲學，不過是一堆習作，一種「情緒的體操」罷了。是的，這可說是一種「體操」，屬於精神或情感那方面的。一種使情感「凝聚成為淵潭，平鋪成為湖泊」的體操。一種「扭曲文字試驗它的韌性，重揉文字試驗它的硬性」的體操。

So here is the text you are asking. I wonder if you know, the meaning of 「體操」 to Mr. Shen Congwen in this text is more like "a way to train and stretch one's body as much as he can". That is the reason he use this word as the metaphor. Base on this, we might explain 「凝聚成為淵潭，平鋪成為湖泊」 as a metaphor which tells a way of training oneself to use his emotions in both depth(凝聚成為淵潭，like gathering water into a deep pond, as deep as it can) and width(平鋪成為湖泊，like letting the water spread out into a wide lake, as wide as it can) while writing.

It is just like stretching your body.

Simply explaining, it's a practice for people to train their skills of using and expressing emotions in their articles.


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## rae1

Once again, thank you everyone for your addition to the thread! Being a native speaker of a heavily inflected language, it's sometimes hard for me to tell between different parts of speech in Chinese, i.e. between verbs and nouns. Thanks to your clarification, I got the grammar of the passage now.


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