How Can I Help but Think of Her? 教我如何不想她
Liu Bannong 劉半農
天上飄著些微雲，
In the sky, light clouds are floating;
地上吹著些微風。
On earth, light winds are flowing.
啊！ 微風吹動了我的頭髮，
Ah! Breezes waft through my hair. . ..
教我如何不想她？
How can I help but think of her?
月光戀愛著海洋，
Moonlight is enamored with the ocean;
海洋戀愛著月光。
The ocean is enraptured by the moonlight.
啊！這般蜜也似的銀夜。
Ah! On such silvery night, sweet as honey, . . .
教我如何不想她？
How can I help but think of her?
水面落花慢慢流，
Fallen petals drift slowly on the water;
水底魚兒慢慢游。
Fish swim leisurely down below.
啊！ 燕子你說些什麽話？
Ah! Swallows what are you uttering to each other?
教我如何不想她？
How can I help but think of her?
枯樹在冷風裏搖，
Leafless trees shiver in the cold winds;
野火在暮色中燒。
Wildfires glow at dusk.
啊！ 西天還有些兒殘霞，
Ah! Some twilight glows are still lingering on the western sky.
教我如何不想她？
How can I help but think of her?
__Liu Bannong劉半農
Liu Bannong was born on May 27, 1891, in Jiangsu Province near today’s Suzhou city. He began his early education under the tutorage of his father at the age of four. Soon, he displayed interests and talents in poetry and arts. In 1901, he entered Hànmòlín Elementary 翰墨林小學, established by his father and several friends. At Hanmolin, in addition to studying historical documents and traditional literature, he also learned English, mathematics, and Western culture.
With the highest score, Liu tested into Changzhou Prefecture High School 常州府中學堂 in 1907. Changzhou Academy was first founded in Tang Dynasty (756 AD). It was reinstated under the guidelines of the newly established Guimao School System 癸卯學制 with an integrated curriculum of traditional and Western learnings.[1] Tú Ruánbó 屠元博, the principal of Changzhou High, and many faculty members were reformers.[2] They indoctrinated students with revolutionary ideas and encouraged them to participate in revolutionary groups. During his high school years, Liu grew to be an independent thinker.
After graduation Liu returned to his hometown and taught for a brief period at Hanmolin Elementary. As the 1911 Revolution broke out, he joined the revolutionary force as correspondence clerk. In 1912 he left the force and went to Shanghai with his younger brother, musicologist Liu Tianhua 劉天華. For several years he took on editorial and translation jobs at various publishing companies and began writing.[3] In 1917 he was invited to teach at the Preparatory School of Peking University, where he met Chen Duxiu. Soon Liu became a regular contributor to the New Youth magazine, advocating for literary and political reforms. He was a supporter of the students in the May Fourth Movement.
Post May Fourth, Liu left for Europe in 1920. He first studied at the University of London and went to Paris in the summer of 1921. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Sorbonne in 1925 with Chinese linguistic studies.[4] While in Europe Liu discovered photography. He was among the pioneers who cultivated photography as an art in China. His Bannong tan ying 半農談影 (Bannong on Photography, 1927) was the first Chinese monograph in aesthetic photography.[5] An active member of Beijing Light Society (Guangshe 光社), he helped to compile Beijing Guangshe Annuals in 1927 and 1928. In the introduction to the second compilations, Liu emphasized the need of capturing images that were reflective of Chinese life and cultural characters.
A proponent of vernacular literature, Liu was particularly interested in the phonological evolution as well as the application of language. To compile swearwords of different regions, he placed an ad on Peking Morning News seeking volunteer entries. In response to his search, his colleague Zhao Yuanren 趙元任 scolded him in dialects from Hunan, Sichuan, and Anhui for hours. Zhou Zuoren 周作人followed up with curses from Shaoxing. Philosopher and classical scholar Zhang Taiyan 章太炎 not only maledicted him with expressions from the Han and the Tang Dynasties, but also provided him with the original sources.
While in Paris, Liu studied Dunhuang manuscripts held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and published his transcriptions as Dunhuang Duosuo敦煌掇瑣 (1925). After returning to China, he taught at various universities in Beijing and devoted his time and energy in collecting and studying dialectical languages and folk music. In June of 1934 he traveled to Suiyuan province and Inner Mongolia for his research. En route he caught relapsing fever. On July 14, 1934, Liu Bannong passed away in Beijing.
__她 ta
她 ta in the refrain of the poem was a new word created by Liu Bannong. Personal pronouns in Chinese used to be genderless. Liu modified the common third-person singular pronoun 他. He replaced the left radical 亻, meaning “person,” with 女, “woman.”
Interpreters of the poem often question whether the “she” refers to a certain person. Some also suggested that it refers to the poet’s motherland, as he composed the verses in 1920 while in London. Zhao Yuanren, who set the poem into a song, suggested in 1981, during a visit to the Central Conservatory of Music, that it should be applied broadly to all people. Hence, he translated/modified the refrain to “How Can I Help but Think of You.”
__The poem
Departed from the traditional versification, this poem is of four stanzas, often compared with the four seasons. Each quatrain is punctuated by the refrain 教我如何不想她？ (How can I help but think of her?). Verses 1, 2 and 4 are of seven syllables—common verse length in many classical forms. Verses 3, accentuated by the interjection “啊” (Ah!), vary from eight to nine words in length. These verses are also of more rhetorical interests: In the first stanza—微風吹動了我的頭髮 (Breezes waft through my hair), the word “了” /lə/ enhances the action of the wind; in the second, 蜜也似 (honey-like) brings in intimacy; in the third, with 燕子你說些什麽話？ (Swallows what are you uttering to each other?), the poet becomes an active part of the scenery; and, finally, in the fourth stanza, we see the rhotic usage of “兒” /er/, characteristic of Beijing dialect.[6]
Although the two opening lines do not rhyme, the first two verses of the later stanzas all end with rhyming words: 洋 (ㄧㄤˊ, yang) with光 (ㄍㄨㄤ, guāng); 流 (ㄌㄧㄡˊ, liú) with 游 (ㄧㄡˊ, yóu); and 搖 (ㄧㄠˊ, yáo) with 燒 (ㄕㄠ, shāo). Except for the third stanza, the third lines end on words of /a/ (ㄚ) sound— “髮” (ㄈㄚˇ, fă), “話” (ㄏㄨㄚˋ, huà), and “霞” (ㄒㄧㄚˊ, xiá), rhyming with “她” (ㄊㄚ, tā) in the refrain.
While borrowing Western structure, Liu used two writing techniques which could be traced to the earliest Chinese poetry: 比bǐ –comparisons between different subjects, and 興xing –associating tangible things with intangible ideas. The folk- like style also recalls that of the poems in Classic of Poetry 詩經. The musical setting of 1926 by Zhao Yuanren made it one of the most known and most beloved poems of the early twentieth century.
[1]William F. Pinar, ed., Curriculum Studies in China: Intellectual Histories, Present Circumstances, International and Development Education, (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).
[2] While studying in Japan, Tu joined Tungmenghui (中國同盟會), an underground organization led by Sun Yat-sen.
[3] Among his translated works were La Dame aux Camélias and Canon of Sherlock Holmes.
[4] His theses Étude expérimentale sur les tons du chinois and Les Mouvements de la langue nationale en Chine were both published in Paris in 1925.
[5] https://photographyofchina.com/blog/liu-bannong
[6] Erhua/Wiki