八月的忧愁 Sadness of August

huáng shuǐ táng lǐ yóu zhe bái yā
黄水塘里游着白鸭，
In a yellow pond there are white ducks swimming,

gāo liáng gěng yóu qīng de gāng gāo guò tóu
高粱梗油青的刚高过头，
only a little taller than human body, sorghums are still green.

zhè tiào dòng de xīn zěn yàng ān chā
这跳动的心怎样安插，
How should I put, in my pounding heart,

tián lǐ yī zhǎi tiáo lù ，bā yuè lǐ zhè yōu chóu
田里一窄条路，八月里这忧愁？
A narrow path in the field, this sadness in August?
 
tiān shì zuó yè yǔ xǐ guò de ，
天是昨夜雨洗过的，
Rains washed the sky clean last night,

shān gǎng zhào zhe tài yáng yòu liú yī piàn yǐng
山岗照着太阳又留一片影；
Sun shines on hills and leaves some shadows;

yáng gēn zhe fàng yáng de zhuǎn jìn cūn zhuāng
羊跟着放羊的转进村庄，
Sheep follow the shepherd into the village,

yī dà kē shù yīn xià zhào zhe jǐng ，yòu xiàng shì xīn
一大棵树荫下罩着井，又像是心！
A big tree shades a well, or maybe a heart!

cóng méi yǒu rén shuō guò bā yuè shén me huà
从没有人说过八月什么话，
No one ever spoke of August,

xià tiān guò qù le ，yě bú dào qiū tiān
夏天过去了，也不到秋天。
Summer is over, and fall isn’t here.

dàn wǒ wàng zhe tián lǒng ，tǔ qiáng shàng de guā
但我望着田垄，土墙上的瓜，
I look onto a farmland, and then at the squashes over the clay wall,

réng bù míng bái shēng huó tóng mèng zěn yàng de lián qiān
仍不明白生活同梦怎样的连牵。
I just don’t understand how life and dream connect.

（海岸 译）

作者简介 Author's Intro

Lin Huiyin: 'Lady of Letters'

Lin Huiyin(林徽因 1904-1955), an outstanding female poet and architectural historian from the first half of the 20th century in China, was an erudite generalist who wrote about literature, arts, architecture and philosophy.

The favorite daughter of Mr. Lin Changmin, a high-rank governor in the Beiyang Government, 16-year-old Lin Huiyin traveled with her father around Europe and the United States in the 1920s.

In 1928, Lin got married in Canada to Mr. Liang Sicheng, son of China's famous politician and scholar, Liang Qichao. The couple had met while studying at Pennsylvania University in America.

On returning to China, Lin Huiyin started teaching architecture at Northeast University and then moved to Beijing's Qinghua University. She co-wrote the famous "Development Stages of Chinese Architecture" with her husband Liang Sicheng and another architect. She also contributed to the design for China's National Emblem and the Hero of the People's Monument in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Accompanying her husband to thousands of ancient Chinese architectural sites, most of which were in remote areas, she worked tirelessly to research China's architectural history. She and her husband lobbied hard to protect many of the old buildings in Beijing at a time when the municipal government was leveling many parts of the city for new construction.

Lin Huiyin's interests were very extensive and in addition to her work on architecture, she also wrote poems, essays, short stories and plays as well as translating works from English. She was well known in literary circles as hostess of one of the country's most famous literary salons in her home in Beijing's Zhongbu Hutong.

One of the more sensational parts of Lin Huiyin's life was her alleged affair with romantic poet Xu Zhimo and she remains best known nowadays as an extremely beautiful female poet of the 1930s. As a symbol of independent women of the time, Lin Huiyin and her western education and fluent English gave her a broader outlook on life than most women of the time. Despite suffering from phthisis towards the end of her life, she never abandoned her work.