"Goodbye Again to Cambridge" by Xu Zhimo, contributed by Vicky Yan (2025)
When my dad read something that particularly struck him, a passage or a poem or just a phrase, he would copy it down on a sheet of paper. When my mom and I were going through his things after his funeral, this was the poem on the very top of the stack. I couldn’t bring myself to read past the first stanza then, but I remembered those first lines so vividly that this week I searched them up to read the whole thing.
The poet was writing about leaving a dearly beloved city to travel somewhere else: he lingers and admires the beauty of every little detail in the scenery before he finally turns around and leaves. However, it is not hard to read it as someone leaving a dearly beloved lifetime behind, looking back on their memories in the last rays of light they have, before they travel—somewhere else.
I've translated the poem myself below, following the rhyme scheme of the original poem (ABCB).
再别康桥 徐志摩
轻轻的我走了，
正如我轻轻的来；
我轻轻的招手，
作别西天的云彩。
那河畔的金柳，
是夕阳中的新娘；
波光里的艳影，
在我的心头荡漾。
软泥上的青荇，
油油的在水底招摇；
在康河的柔波里，
我甘心做一条水草！
那榆荫下的一潭，
不是清泉，是天上虹；
揉碎在浮藻间，
沉淀着彩虹似的梦。
寻梦？撑一支长篙，
向青草更青处漫溯；
满载一船星辉，
在星辉斑斓里放歌。
但我不能放歌，
悄悄是别离的笙箫；
夏虫也为我沉默，
沉默是今晚的康桥！
悄悄的我走了，
正如我悄悄的来；
我挥一挥衣袖，
不带走一片云彩。
Goodbye Again to Cambridge by Xu Zhimo
Softly I leave,
Just as softly I came;
I gently wave farewell
To the clouds of the west, awash with colors of flame.
The golden willow tree upon that riverbank,
Blushes like a bride as the sunlight departs;
Breathtaking in the glittering waves of light off the water,
Rippling across my heart of hearts.
Above the river sludge are floating-heart flowers,
Beneath the surface in thick abundance, sashay their reeds;
In the gentle waves of the River Cam,
I would happily be but a stem among the water weeds!
The pool in the shadow of that elm,
Is not just a clear spring, but a celestial rainbow beam;
Eroded into fragments among the floating algae,
Sedimenting into rainbow-like dreams.
In search of lost dreams? Hoist a pole,
And row upstream to where greener grasses are growing;
Load up the boat with starlight,
And in the dazzle of that starlight: sing.
But I can not sing,
Silence is the pipes and the flutes of the leaving;
Even the insects of summer fall silent for me,
Silence blankets the Cambridge of this evening!
Without a sound I leave,
Just as soundlessly I came;
I shake my thoughts away,
Leaving behind those clouds aflame.