“For we are now in the autumn of our national life. There comes a time in our lives, as nations and as individuals, when we are pervaded by the spirit of early autumn, in which green is mixed with gold and sadness is mixed with joy, and hope is mixed with reminiscence. There comes a time in our lives when the innocence of spring is a memory and the exuberance of summer a song whose echoes faintly remain in the air, when, as we look out on life, the problem is not how to grow but how to live truly, not how to strive and labour but how to enjoy the precious moments we have, not how to squander our energy but how to conserve it in preparation for the coming winter. A sense of having arrived somewhere, of having settled and found out what we want. A sense of having achieved something also, precious little compared with its past exuberance, but still something, like an autumn forest shorn of its summer glory but retaining such of it as will endure.
我們的國運正處在多事之秋﹐無論國家和個人的生命，都會達到一種瀰漫著初秋精神的時期，翠綠夾著黃褐，悲哀夾著歡樂，希望夾著追憶。到了生命的這個時期，春日的純真已成追憶， 夏日的繁茂餘音嫋嫋， 我們瞻望生命，問題已不在於如何成長，而在於如何真誠度日，不在於拚命奮門，而在於享受僅餘的寶貴光陰，不在於如何浪費體力，而在於如何保存實力，準備過 冬。自覺已到達某一境地，安下心來，找到自己追求的目標。也自覺有一些成就，比起往日的輝煌雖然顯得微不足道，卻值得珍惜，宛如一座失去夏日光彩的秋林， 仍然保有耐寒的韌力。
“I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its leaves are a little yellow, its tone mellower, its colours richer, and it is tinged a little with sorrow and a premonition of death. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor of the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and is content. From a knowledge of those limitations and its richness of experience emerges a symphony of colours, richer than all, its green speaking of life and strength, its orange speaking of golden content and its purple of resignation and death. And the moon shines over it, and its brow (note 1) seems white with reflections, but when the setting sun touches it with an evening glow, it can still laugh cheerily. An early mountain breeze brushes by and sends its shivering leaves dancing gaily to the ground, and you do not know whether the song of the falling leaves is the song of laughter or of parting tears. For it is the wisdom of the Spirit of Early Autumn, the spirit of calm and wisdom and maturity, which smiles at sorrow itself and praises the exhilarating, keen, cool air – the Spirit of Autumn so well expressed by Hsin Ch’ichi:
“In my young days,
I had tasted only gladness,
But loved to mount the top floor,
But loved to mount the top floor.
To write a song pretending sadness.
“And now I’ve tasted
Sorrow’s flavours, bitter and sour,
And can’t find a word,
And can’t find a word,
But merely say, “What a golden autumn hour!”
我喜歡春天，但是它太年輕；我喜歡夏天，可是它太驕傲。所以我最喜歡的還是秋天，因為秋天樹葉剛呈嫩黃，色調比較柔和，色彩比較豐富，又染有一絲的 憂愁和不祥之兆。它金黃的多彩所要說的不是春天的純真，也不是夏天的威猛，而是老成的持重和慈祥的智慧。它知道生命的有限所以知足，因它既知道生命的有 限，又閱歷甚豐，從而繪成了無與倫比的繽紛：綠色象徵生命和力量，橙色象徵稱心的滿足，而紫色象徵順從和死亡。月亮照耀著它，反映著月光，樹梢顯得蒼白， 然而當落日撫著秋林，餘輝照亮著它，它仍然可以嫣然歡笑。清晨的山風吹過，瑟縮的葉子愉快地飛舞到地面。你不知道落葉的歌是歡笑的歌唱，還是訣別的哀吟。 因為這就是初秋的精神，就是平靜﹑智慧與成熟的精神，能夠以微笑面對悲哀，能夠讚賞那使人清醒的冷風 – 這就是秋之精神，辛棄疾的詞表達得很好：
少年不識愁滋味 愛上層樓 愛上層樓 為賦新詞強說愁。
而今識盡愁滋味 欲說還休 欲說還休 卻道天涼好個秋。
English text was taken from Dr. Lin, Yu-Tang’s book “My Country and My People” published in the United States in 1935. Chinese translation was originated from a book (林語堂傳 Biography of Lin Yu-Tang) published by Dr. Lin’s daughter Lin, Tai-Yi and was modified by me.
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