Afterwards, the thousands of silent and quiet lives began to bustle. And the grass, lifting up their banner of youth, and bathed in the spring breeze, danced cheerfully and sang to their heart’s content. My heart, which had dried up for so long, was filled with vitality from the green meadow.
于是，整个春天，这片青草地是我放牧心灵的绿洲，是我排遣尘间烦愁的安抚。看着草儿们一天天秀茁，一如泰戈尔的诗句：“小草呀，你的足步虽小，但你却拥有你足下的土地”，我也有脚踏实地的充盈，如同小草一般，拥有我足下的土地。
Then, for the whole spring, the green meadow turned to the oasis where I set my heart out for pasture and it brought me the comfort, which diverted me from the vexations of the world. Watching the grass grow stronger and prettier day by day, I recalled a line from Tagore’s poems: “Grass, small as thy pace is, thou hath thy own land under thy feet.” And I felt I had my feet planted on the solid ground and, like the little grass, owned the earth beneath my feet. 下雪的日子里，我独自守在窗前，默诵雪莱那“如果冬天来了，春天还会远吗？”的名句，看那一朵朵轻盈洁白的雪花，从铅灰色的冥空里无声地飘落下来，轻轻地覆盖在那片干枯的草地上，心想：那草儿来年一定会长得更茂盛的。
During the snowing days, standing alone by the window, I recited silently Shelley’s famous lines that “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” Watching the pure-white, graceful snowflakes falling in silence from the lead-gray sky, covering gently the withered meadow, I thought that in the coming year, the grass would flourish.
然而，那片给了我许多慰藉的青草地，已经永远从我的生活里消失了。消失于一次填湖筑路，创造另一种形式的美的过程之中。那些小草被毁灭之前，一定为生存的权利抗争过吧！正如契诃夫《草原》里的小草一样：“她说她热烈地想活下去，她还年轻??她会长得更美。”
Yet, the meadow that had given me so much comfort has forever disappeared from my life. It disappeared when a path was constructed to the middle of the lake ― a process of creating another form of beauty. Before the extermination however, the grass must have struggled for the right to live on! Just like the grass in Chekov’s “Prairie”: “She said she earnestly wanted to live on, she was still young. She would be more beautiful...”
但是，在力量悬殊的抗争之中，扼杀生命是易如反掌的事情。闭上眼，我能看到：那些半死不活、凋萎的小草，正在悲凉恳切地诉说着??讲到他们什么罪过也不曾有过，却要无辜地被人们毁灭掉??
But in the struggle of great disparity in strength, it was as easy as turning one’s hand over to strangle a life. Closing my eyes, I could see those half-dead, withering grass complaining with grief...that they’d never done anything wrong, yet they would be destroyed by man innocently...
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我不知道，那些善良的筑路人是否听到过草儿们哀怨的诉说？但我相信，那种哀怨的无声的诉说，一定是一种生命的绝唱！
I don’t know whether those kind road-builders had ever heard the sad complaint of the grass. But I believe that the silent grievance must have been a kind of swan song of life!
如今，那条湖心小路蜿蜿蜓蜓，曲径通幽，有月光的夜里，树影婆娑。偶尔走在上面的时候，只要想起那片青草地，想起那些曾经寄我情思、慰我心魂的小草，我的心中总有一股悲壮的感受，仿佛足踏在草儿们的尸骨上，听到脚下灵魂痛苦地呻吟叹息！ Now, the path winds its way to the middle of the lake ― leading into the privacy and seclusion. On moonlit nights, the shadows of trees dance in the breeze. When I walk on the path occasionally, thinking of that green meadow and of the grass, where I placed my feelings and I was comforted, I would feel something moving and tragic filling up my heart, as if I were treading on the remains of the grass and hearing the painful groan and sigh of its soul under my feet!
我想：假如生命终结之后确有灵魂存在的话，那么，这世上呻吟叹息的又岂只是那些小草的灵魂？
If a soul does exist when a life comes to an end, then, could the soul of the grass be the only one that groans and moans on the earth?
现在，早春有一次来临，静谧的湖畔里又有星星点点的鹅黄嫩绿，悄悄繁衍着生命的碧翠。在历经自然和人类的双重肃杀之后，无数生命又将开始一个新的轮回。固然逝去的已经不复存在，而活着的又要为生命继续拼搏！
Now, early spring has appeared once more, with flecks of light yellow and soft green silently breeding. After experiencing the double devastation of nature and man, thousands upon thousands of lives will start a new samsara. Although the deceased is out of existence, the living still has to continue struggling for life!
其实，生命这种东西轰轰烈烈也好，默默无闻也罢，归根结蒂，都不过是一种悲壮的过程而已。正因为有了这种悲壮的过程，所以“太阳每天都是新的！”
In fact, in final analysis, life, being dynamic or unknown, is nothing but a solemn and stirring process. Yet just because of this solemn and stirring process, “the sun is new everyday!” 我因此时常怀想那片青草地。
Therefore, I often think of the green meadow. （张晔 译）
可爱的南京
Nanjing the Beloved City
南京，她有层出不穷的风流人物和彪炳千秋的不朽业绩。大都会特有的凝聚力，吸引了无数风云人物、仁人志士在这里角逐争雄，一逞豪彦。从孙权、谢安到洪秀全、孙中山，
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从祖冲之、葛洪到李时珍、郑和，从刘勰、萧统到曹雪芹、吴敬梓，从王羲之、顾恺之到徐悲鸿、傅抱石，还有陶行知、杨廷宝等等，中国历史上一批杰出的政治家、军事家、科学家、文学家、艺术家、教育家、建筑家等荟萃于此，在这块钟灵毓秀的土地上一圆他们的辉煌之梦。他们是中华民族的优秀儿女。巍巍钟山、滚滚长江养育了他们，为他们提供了施展抱负的舞台，他们也以自己的雄才大略、聪明智慧为中华民族的灿烂文明增添了流光溢彩的新篇章。
Nanjing has witnessed the continuous emergence of many distinguished talents and noble hearts as well as monumental achievements that shone through the ages. Attracted by her special appeal, a great number of powerful figures and people actuated by high ideals have stayed in or frequented this metropolis to contend for the lead or to give play to their genius and virtues. Military commanders such as Sun Quan and Xie An; political leaders such as Hong Xiuquan and Dr. Sun Yat-sen; scientists like Zu Chongzhi, Ge Hong, Li Shizhen and Zheng He; men of letters such as Liu Xie, Xiao Tong, Cao Xueqin and Wu Jingzi; artists like Wang Xizhi, Gu Kaizhi, Xu Beihong and Fu Baoshi; educators such as Tao Xingzhi; and architects like Yang Tingbao — all these renowned historical figures used to settle on this blessed land to have their splendid dreams fulfilled. The towering Purple Mountains and billowing Yangtze River nurtured them and provided them with arenas in which to realize their aspirations. By virtue of their genius, vision, and sagacity, these best and brightest sons and daughters of the nation made spectacular contributions to the resplendent Chinese civilization.
南京，她自新中国建立以来发生的巨大而深刻的变化更加令人欢欣鼓舞。“虎踞龙盘今胜昔，天翻地覆慨而慷”。
The tremendous changes that have taken place in Nanjing since New China was founded are even more inspiring, just as the much quoted couplet from a poem written by the late Chairman Mao Zedong on the occasion of the liberation of the city on April 23, 1949 has it: The city, a tiger crouching, a dragon curling, outshines its ancient glories; In heroic triumph heaven and earth have been overturned.
从1949年4月23日始，人民真正成为这座古老城市的主人。金陵回春，古城新生，昔日饱尝的屈辱和灾难，至此如同梦魇终被摆脱。人民在自己的土地上辛勤劳作，把古城南京装扮得面貌一新。特别是近十几年来，改革开放又给这座美丽的名城注入了新的活力，崭新的工业、通达的运输、如画的城市建设、兴盛的第三产业、多彩的文化生活，都使这个具有古都特色的现代都市焕发出勃勃英姿。孙中山先生所预言的：“南京将来之发展未可限量也”，正在逐步成为现实。
Balmy spring winds returned to bring new life to this historic city, of which the common people came to be the genuine masters. The night marish sufferings and humiliations of the
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past were left behind once and for all. The citizens of Nanjing have been working hard to give this age-old town a new appearance. Especially for the past ten years or more, the country’s reform and opening-up policy has infused new vigor into this beautiful and famous city. Newly built industries, an efficient transportation network extending in all directions, picturesque urban construction, a booming tertiary industry, a varied and colorful cultural life, all these and more added charm and vitality to this modern metropolis, which retains somehow the ambiance and features of an ancient capital. The prophecy of Dr. Sun Yat-sen father of modern China that “Nanjing will have a future that knows no bounds” is becoming true.
南京，这座古老而又年轻的历史文化名城，是多么的可爱！
Nanjing, an old city with a rich and celebrated past, yet vigorous in her new youth — how lovely she is!（柯平 译）
霞 冰心
The Rosy Cloud byBingxin
四十年代初期，我在重庆郊外歌乐山闲居的时候，曾看到英文《读者文摘》上，有个很使我惊心的句子，是： May there be enough clouds in your life to make a beautiful sunset. During the early 1940s I was living a retired life in the Gele Mountains in the suburbs of Chongqing (Chungking). One day, while reading the English language magazine Reader’s Digest I found a sentence that touched me greatly. It read: “May there be enough clouds in your life to make a beautiful sunset.”
我在一篇短文里曾把它译成：“愿你的生命中有够多的云翳，来造成一个美丽的黄昏。” In a short article of mine, I quoted this sentence and translated it as “Yuan ni de shengming zhong you guo duo de yunyi, lai zaocheng yige meili de huanghun. “ (literally: May there be enough clouds in your life to make a beautiful sunset.) * 其实，这个sunset应当译成“落照”或“落霞”。
As I see it now, the word “sunset” in the English sentence should have been translated as luozhao (the glow at sunset) or luoxia (the rosy cloud at sunset), instead of dusk.
霞，是我的老朋友了！我童年在海边、在山上，她都是我的最熟悉最美丽的小伙伴。她每早每晚都在光明中和我说“早上好”或“明天见”。但我直到几十年以后，才体会到云彩更多，霞光才愈美丽。从云翳中外露的霞光，才是璀璨多彩的。
She has been my dear old friend, the Rosy Cloud! She was my closest and most beautiful little companion when, in my childhood, I played on the beach or in the hills. Bathed in the brilliant sunshine, she would say to me “Good morning!” at dawn and “See you tomorrow!” at dusk. But not until several decades later did I come to realize that the more clouds there are the more beautiful the rays of sunlight will be, and the glow of the sun breaking through the
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clouds becomes most resplendent and colorful.
生命中不是只有快乐，也不是只有痛苦，快乐和痛苦是相生相成，互相衬托的。 Life contains neither unalloyed happiness nor mere misery. Happiness and misery beget, complement and set off each other.
快乐是一抹微云，痛苦是压城的乌云，这不同的云彩，在你生命的天边重叠着，在“夕阳无限好”的时候，就给你造成一个美丽的黄昏。
Happiness is a wisp of fleecy cloud; misery a mass of threatening dark cloud. These different clouds overlap on the horizon of your life to create a beautiful dusk for you when “the setting sun is most lovely indeed.”**
一个生命会到了“只是近黄昏”的时节，落霞也许会使人留恋、惆怅。但人类的生命是永不止息的。地球不停地绕着太阳自转。东方不亮西方亮，我床前的晚霞，正向美国东岸的慰冰湖上走去??
An individual’s life must inevitably reach the point when “dusk is so near,”*** and the rosy sunset cloud may make one nostalgic and melancholy. But human life goes on and on. The Earth ceaselessly rotates on its axis around the sun. When it is dark in the east, it is light in the west. The rosy sunset cloud is now sailing past my window towards Lake Waban on the east coast of America ...
黎明前的北平 Predawn Peiping
天气一天比一天寒冷 。北海公园的湖上已经结了厚厚的冰层，马路两旁树木上的叶子已经落尽了，只有光秃秃的树枝在寒风中瑟瑟颤抖着。
It was getting colder with each passing day. The lake in Beihai Park was covered with a thick layer of ice. The roadside trees had been stripped of their foliage, leaving their bare branches and twigs shivering in the biting wind.
北平已被强大的人民解放军包围，城门紧闭，粮食、蔬菜、鱼肉都运不进来。我们吃着早已准备的酱萝卜，有时也用黄豆泡豆芽。
Peiping had been besieged by the powerful PLA forces. The city gates were shut tight and supplies of grain, vegetables, fish and meat were cut off. We had to make do with the pickled turnips we had laid in long beforehand and sometimes ate home-grown soybean sprouts instead.
时不时可以听见解放军的炮声。但是北平城内还有着数量庞大的国民党军队，虽然已如瓮中之鳖，但如果负隅顽抗，仍将给人民的生命财产造成巨大损失。何去何从？急待抉择。当时，统率这批军队的傅作义将军在无可奈何的情况下，邀请了北平的一些学者名流，征询意见。
Now and then the PLA artillery was heard booming while entrenched inside the city were an
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