汉译英参考译文

On Feb. 24th, 1997, our delegation stayed at RiyueTan Hotel during a trip. In was already 3 o’clock next morning when I saw off the last guests. I, lying in bed, couldn’t sleep long time so that I put on my coat and approached to the window. Looking out of it, I saw the mountains covered with tress around the pool surface with ripples. Watching the only natural lake in Taiwan, beautiful like a picture, I was thinking a lot…

During this brief stay in Taiwan for both visit and exchange, I saw a lot of places, visited some old friends and met some new acquaintances. When people got together, one major topic of the talk was the thriving of the Chinese nation in the 21st century. Despite living in different social environments and having different life experiences, the youth of the mainland and the island are both imprinted with the excellent traditions of the Chinese culture and share the common aspiration of revitalizing the Chinese nation. At the turn of this great era, our motherland is advancing towards prosperity. The people on both sides of the strait are to strength their communication and make joint effects to realize the great cause of reunifying the motherland as early as possible. The golden opportunity and the great challenge at this turn of the century have pushed the youth to the forefront of history. What attitude the trans-century young generation adopts to embrace the promising new century will be a question that demands our answer.

RiyueTan Pool appears calm and tranquil as if it were with me meditating/deliberating…

Picking Apricots

Grandma’s old house, of a very common type for north China, consisted of three rooms plus a yard facing the south, which was enclosed with the wall built by large rocks from the mountains.

At the west end of the yard grew two apricot trees with crooked branches. Each spring, the pink flowers would come into blossom like small eyes opening from the dreamy leaves, sweetly smiling at us. The understanding smiles seemed to tell all of us children that they would very soon become plump apricots densely hanging on the branches.

I often came with a group of children, including Haigou and Fengya living near Grandma’s to the trees with crooked branches, watched the apricots with heads askance, sucked our fingers and drooled at the thought of the luscious fruit. We were expecting that the pink and white flowers would quickly turn into small apricots, becoming big and green, and then ripe and yellow.

“One, two, three…” we counted the increasingly big and ripe apricots, drooling, jumping and shouting with joy, and crowding around my uncle to ask him to pick the fruit. So, he climbed up the tree and picked a basket of big, round and yellow apricots. As soon as it was placed on the ground, like a group of chicks, we threw ourselves on the food…

The Most Precious Things Cost Nothing

Translated by Zheng Liqun

It suddenly dawns on me that the most precious things in human life cost nothing!

Sunlight is free. Who in the entire world could do without sunlight? Who has ever paid any penny for the sunlight he has enjoyed from childhood to adulthood? Moreover, sunlight pours equally on each dwelling whether a luxurious villa or a shabby farm-shed, and on each person as well, whether rich or poor, old or young. So it is just and generous.

Air is free. Each person needs a continuous supply of fresh air if he is to stay alive and kicking. From the old times to the present, has there been anyone who has ever defrayed his