I Would Be

I would be a fallen leaf,
Drifting about in the rainy wind;
Or be a floating cloud, in the sky blue,
So to avoid any link with the ground.

Holding tight to the heart shattered,
To gather the hopeless affections in bygones
In the dusk or at midnight, tiptoeing back,
To this world of all void absurd and cold.

To forget the existence of such a world, and of you,
With the lament if we two ever loved.
To forget he tears falling in showers like flowers,
And all my feelings in there hiding.

That day no trace of mine would be left,
Not even a fleeting ray or a passing breath of wind.
And you too should forget there have been me, and
There has been such a world, in which I once lived.

-- Phyllis Lin
Original Text:
情愿
我情愿化成一片落叶，
让风吹雨打到处飘零；
或流云一朵，在澄蓝天，落叶
和大地再没有些牵连。

但抱紧那伤心的标志，
去触遇没着落的怅惘；
在黄昏，夜半，蹑着脚走，
全是空虚，再莫有温柔；

忘掉曾有这世界；有你；
哀悼谁又曾有过爱恋；
落花似的落尽，忘了去
这些个泪点里的情绪。

到那天一切都不存留，
比一闪光，一息风更少
痕迹，你也要忘掉了我
曾经在这世界里活过。

-- 林徽因
http://www.ryedu.net/syy/yywh/201109/23189.html

 

 

You Are the April of This world -- Ode to Love

First:

I think you are the April of this world,
Sure, you are the April of this world.
Your  laughter has lit up all the wind,
So gently mingling with the spring.

You are the clouds in early spring,
The dusk wind blows up and down.
And the stars blink now and then,
Fine rain drops down amid the flowers.
                      
So gentle and graceful,
You are crowned with garlands.
So sublime and innocent,
You are a full moon over each evening.
                   
The snow melts,with that light yellow,
You look like the first budding green.
You are the soft joy of white lotus
Rising up in your fancy dreamland.
                   
You're the blooming flowers over the trees, 
You're a swallow twittering between the beams;
Full of love,full of warm hope,
You are the Spring of this world!

 Translation:   Frank Huang 黄 新 渠 英 译

http://www.ryedu.net/syy/yywh/201109/23190.html

Second:
You are the tender month of April

I say, you are the tender month of April
Your laughters dance in Aeolus's call
and swiftly change your steps in ripples of spring.
You are, leisurely clouds in the sky, roming,
In murmurs of dusky air, and stars sparkle
casually, when misty rain falls, upon flowers.
So softly, so gently, and you, in these fairy hour
are crowned in Flora's honor, innocent,
Yet majestic, like a bright full-moon night,
Or the newly thawing snow. And an aqua sprout
shooting and proud, you are. Supple rejoice of seeing
the lotus flower upon the expanse of water shimmering.
You are blooming buds of trees, or a swift swallow
whispering at my window, you are love, and mellow.
A chapter of poetry, and tender April of mondialito.

-- http://www.en8848.com.cn/fanyi/sx/poemshyy/129950.html

Third:
You’re the Heaven of the World in April

You’re the heaven of the world in April, I say
The laughter brightens the wind around softly
Alters in the bright sunlight while dancing in spring

You’re the cloud and mist in early April
Blowing softly in dusk, the stars
Are twinkling unconsciously, little rain is sprinkling on flower
So light, so graceful, you are, pretty and fresh

Crown made of flowers you’re having on, you‘re
Innocent, solemn, you’re the full moon in every evening
Alike yellow after snow melt, you’re, fresh
New green bud you’re, tender and joyful
White lotus awaited in dream, is floating above
The water and light within it

Tree by tree, you’re the blossoms, the swallows
Whispering between beams, you are love, warmth, hope
You’re the heaven of the world in April

--The Original Text:
你是人间的四月天 —一句爱的赞颂
林徽因(Phyllis Lin)


我说你是人间的四月天；
笑响点亮了四面风；轻灵
在春的光艳中交舞着变。
你是四月早天里的云烟，
黄昏吹着风的软，星子在
无意中闪，细雨点洒在花前。
那轻，那娉婷你是，鲜妍
百花的冠冕你戴着，你是
天真，庄严，你是夜夜的月圆。
雪化后那篇鹅黄，你象；新鲜
初放芽的绿，你是；柔嫩喜悦
水光浮动着你梦期待中白莲。
你是一树一树的花开，是燕
在梁间呢喃，——你是爱，是暖，
是希望，你是人间的四月天！

 

"Even God Rests."- HOP2303

But you didn't

Remember the day I borrowed your brand
new car and dented it?
I thought you'd kill me,
but you didn't.

And remember the time I dragged you to the beach,
and you said it would rain, and it did?
I thought you'd say, "I told you so."
but you didn't.

Do you remember the time I flirted with all
the guys to make you jealous, and you were?
I thought you'd leave,
but you didn't.

Do you remember the time I spilled strawberry pie
all over your car rug?
I thought you'd hit me,
but you didn't.

And remember the time I forgot to tell you the dance
was formal and you showed up in jeans?
I thought you'd drop me,
but you didn't.

Yes, there were lots of things you didn't do.
But you put up with me, and loved me, and protected me.

There were lots of things I wanted to make up to you
when you returned from Vietnam.

But you didn't.

--Merrill Glass

What I Have Lived For （Bertrand Russell)

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a great ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. 　　

I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness–that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what–at last–I have found. 　　

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved. 　　

Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer. 　　

This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me