Autumn In The Ancient Capital
Autumn is always wonderful regardless of where it is. But autumn in the north is especially fresher, quieter and more desolate. I have traveled thousands of miles in a rush from Hangzhou to Qingdao and then from Qingdao to Peking. The only reason was to taste ‘the autumn’, its flavor in the ancient capital.
秋天，无论在什么地方的秋天，总是好的；可是啊，北国的秋，却特别来得清，来得静，来得悲凉。我的不远千里，要从杭州赶上青岛，更要从青岛赶上北平来的理由，也不过想尝一尝这“秋”，这故都的秋味。
In the south, of course there is autumn too. However, vegetation there withers slow. With moist air and pale sky, it is often more rainy and less windy. One, always mixed in the crowds in Suzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Hong Kong or Guangzhou, lives a chaotic life and only feels a bit cool. It is never possible to fully appreciate the taste, color, context and gesture of the autumn. Autumn is not a brand flower, nor a mellow wine. The half-drunk altitude is inappropriate in the course of understanding the autumn.
江南，秋当然也是有的；但草木雕得慢，空气来得润，天的颜色显得淡，并且又时常多雨而少风；一个人夹在苏州上海杭州，或厦门香港广州的市民中间，混混沌沌地过去，只能感到一点点清凉，秋的味，秋的色，秋的意境与姿态，总是看不饱，尝不透，赏玩不到十足。秋并不是名花，也并不是美酒，那一种半开，半醉的状态，在领略秋的过程上，是不合适的。
I have not spent the autumn in the north for almost ten years. Every autumn in the south, I always thought of the aloe flowers of the TaoRan Pavilion, the elegant willows of the DiaoYu Platform, the singing insets in the Western Hills, the autumn moon of the Jade Springs and the bell rings of the Tanzhe Temple. In Peking, no matter whether you stay at home, go with the crowd in the Forbidden City or rent a shack, you’ll see the lofty and azure sky and hear the sound of pigeon-training under the sky when you get up to make a bowl of hot tea and sit in the yard in the morning. Under the shady locust trees, counting the traces of the sunbeams sifted through toward the east, or in the broken wall, facing silently the blue flowers of the trumpet-like morning glory, you will feel naturally the authentic autumn. Saying a morning glory, I thought blue or white one is the best, the purple one the second and then follows the pink one. It would be the best if there are a few sparse tapering and long autumn grasses growing on the base of the flowers to serve as a contrast.
不逢北国之秋，已将近十余年了。在南方每年到了秋天，总要想起陶然亭的芦花，钓鱼台的柳影，西山的虫唱，玉泉的夜月，潭柘寺的钟声。在北平即使不出门去罢，就是在皇城人海之中，租人家一椽破屋来住着，早晨起来，泡一碗浓茶，向院子一坐，你也能看得到很高很高的碧绿的天色，听得到青天下训鸽的飞声。从槐树叶底，朝东细数着一丝一丝漏下来的日光，或在破壁腰中，静对着象喇叭似的牵牛花（朝荣）的蓝朵，自然而然地也能感觉到十分的秋意。说道了牵牛花。我以为以蓝色或白色者为佳，紫黑色次之，淡红色最下。最好，还要在牵牛花底，教长着几根疏疏落落的尖细且长的秋草，使作陪衬。
Locust tree in the north is also a kind of embellishment and a reminder of autumn.Their fallen petals, somehow like but unlike flowers, fully cover the ground in the morning. Stepping on them even causes no sound or smell, only arouses a sense of super subtlety and tenderness. After the street cleaners sweep the streets shadowed by the trees, the streak traces left behind by the brooms in the dust looked soft and idle, also a bit lonely in sub-consciousness. The ancients said that one leaf of phoenix tree makes the autumn known to the world, a reverie almost evidenced by the depth of these things.
北国的槐树，也是一种能使人联想起秋来的点缀。象花而又不是花的那一种落蕊，早晨起来，会铺得满地。脚踏上去，声音也没有，气味也没有，只能感出一点点极微细极柔软的触觉。扫街的在树影下一阵扫后，灰土上留下来的一条条扫帚的丝纹，看起来既觉得细腻，又觉得清闲，潜意识下并且还觉得有点儿落寞，古人所说的梧桐一叶而天下知秋的遥想，大约也就在这些深沉的地方。
The fading and feeble chirping of cicadas is a specialty of the north. Trees grow everywhere in Peking. Houses are also lowly sprawled. So no matter where you are, you are able to hear their singings. In the south, you need to go into the countryside or up to the mountains to hear them. In Peking, the whinny of autumn cicadas is just simply the home insects like crickets and mice kept in every household.
秋蝉的衰弱的残声，更是北国的特产；因为北平处处全长着树，屋子又低，所以无论在什么地方，都听得见它们的啼唱。在南方是非要上郊外或山上去才听得到的。这秋蝉的嘶叫，在北平可和蟋蟀耗子一样，简直象是家家户户都养在家里的家虫。
Also there is raining in autumn, so odder, more flavored and more decent in the north than in the south.
还有秋雨哩，北方的秋雨也似乎比南方的下得奇，下得有味，下得象样。
Under the gloomy sky, suddenly comes a gust of cool wind. Rain is immediately scattered down. After this fit of raining, the clouds gradually roll away toward the west. The sky turns into blue and the sun shows off its face again. The urban idlers, wearing thick green unlined clothes or lined jackets and chewing tobacco pipes, stand on the bridge shadowed by the trees after rain.
When meeting acquaintances, they would greet each other in a slow and leisurely tone:
'Oh, it is really cool now----' (the last word was pronounced in high pitch and dragged very long.)
在灰沉沉的天底下，忽而来一阵凉风，便息列索落地下起雨来了。一层雨过，云渐渐地卷向了西去，天又青了，太阳又露出脸来了；著者很厚的青布单衣或夹袄的都市闲人，咬着烟管，在雨后的斜桥影里，上桥头树底下去一立，遇见熟人，便会用了缓慢悠闲的声调，微叹着互答着的说：
“唉，天可真凉了----”（这了字念得很高，拖得很长。）
“Isn’t it really? Coldness follows the autumn rain!'
“可不是么？一层秋雨一层凉了！”
When the Northerners speak, they are pretty like to layer words and make the tones of the words ups and downs. So the mispronounced rhyme sounds just alright.
北方人念字，总老象是层字，平平仄仄起来，这念错的岐韵，倒来得正好。
The fruit trees of the Northerners in the autumn are also a spectacle too. The first one is the date tree, which grows up one by one in the corner, on the wall, besides the latrine and by the door of kitchens. The size of date is similar to that of olives and the pigeon eggs. When their color turns yellowish and greenish amid the fine oval leaves, it is just the heyday of autumn. After the leaves fall off and the dates turn red, the northwest wind is coming. The north then is a world of dust. At the junction of July and August when the dates, persimmons and grapes almost ripen, it is the best days of autumn in the north and the only golden days of the year.
北方人的果树，到秋来，也是一种奇景。第一是枣子树；屋角，墙头，茅房边上，灶房门口，它都会一株株地长大起来。象橄榄又象鸽蛋似的这枣子颗儿，在小椭圆的细叶中间，显出淡绿微黄的颜色的时候，正是秋的全盛时期；等枣树叶落，枣子红完，西北风就要来了。北方便是尘沙灰土的世界，只有这枣子、柿子、葡萄成熟到八九分的七八月之交，是北国的清秋的佳日，是一年之中最好也没有的Golden Days。
Some critics say that Chinese literati, especially poets, are all tinted with a very strong color of decadence. So in Chinese poetry, the words in praise of the autumn are particularly abundant. But why the foreign poets are an exception? I have not read a lot foreign poetry, neither do I want to build up an account to compile collections of poems and proses on autumn. But if you go over the anthologies of English, French, German and Italian poets or poets from any other nationality, you will always see many praises and laments about autumn. In the lengthy pastoral poetry or poetry on all four seasons of the famous poets, the best written and most flavored parts are also about autumn. It is clearly seen that for the autumn, animals with sense and human beings with taste, always arouse the same especially deep, remote, harsh, desolate feelings. Not only a poet, but also a prisoner held in a dungeon, as to the fall, I think he will certainly feel an uncontrollable affectionateness. For human beings, why should autumn be different to them, why should autumn be distinct among different races and classes? But in Chinese, ‘Autumn scholar’is an idiom and ‘Autumn sound’ by Ouyang Xiu and ‘Ode to the Red Cliff’ by Susei are frequently seen in literature readings, etc., Chinese literati are felt in particularly deep relationship with the autumn. However, the deep meaning of autumn, especially the deep meaning of China's autumn, can be felt fully only in the north.
有些批评家说，中国的文人学士，尤其是诗人，都带着很浓厚的颓废色彩，所以中国的诗文里，颂赞秋的文字特别的多。但外国的诗人，又何尝不然？我虽则外国诗文念得不多，也不想开出帐来，做一篇秋的诗歌散文钞，但你若去一翻英德法意等诗人的集子，或各国的诗文的Anthology来，总能够看到许多关于秋的歌颂与悲啼。各著名的大诗人的长篇田园诗或四季诗里，也总以关于秋的部分，写得最出色而最有味。足见有感觉的动物，有情趣的人类，对于秋，总是一样的能特别引起深沉，幽远，严厉，萧索的感触来的。不单是诗人，就是被关在牢狱里的囚犯，到了秋天，我想也一定会感到一种不能自己的深情；秋之于人，何尝有别，更何尝有人种阶级之分呢？不过在中国，文字里有一个“秋士”的成语，读本里又有着很普遍的欧阳子的秋声与苏东坡的赤壁赋等，就觉得中国的文人，与秋的关系特别深了，可是这秋的深味，尤其是中国的秋的深味，非要在北方，才感受得底。
Of course, the autumn in the south also has its uniqueness, such as the bright moon over the bridge of twenty-four arched holes, the autumn tides of the Qiantang River, the cool mist in the Putuo Mountain, the lingering lotus in the Lychee Bay, etc. Their hues are not strong, but their aftertastes last long. Compared to the north, the autumn in the south is just as the yellow wine versus the dry liquor, the rice porridge versus the steamed bun, the bass versus the big crab, and the yellow dogs versus the camels.
南国之秋，当然是也有它的特异的地方的，比如廿四桥的明月，钱塘江的秋潮，普陀山的凉雾，荔枝湾的残荷等等，可是色彩不浓，回味不永。比起北国的秋来，正象是黄酒之与白干，稀饭之与馍馍，鲈鱼之与大蟹，黄犬之与骆驼。
Autumn, the autumn in the north, if it can be retained, I would like to exchange for its one-third with the two-thirds of my lifetime.
秋天，这北国的秋天，若留得住的话，我愿把寿命的三分之二折去，换得一个三分之一的零头。
August 1934, in Beiping.
一九三四年八月，在北平。
