◎江蘇省錫山高級中學(xué) 盧怡安 指導(dǎo)教師：王 萍

Now, let’s make an assumption. Suppose that you’re in the countryside, lying on the grass and looking up at the sky, you’ll see a great number of shining stars if you’re lucky enough. So what will happen if you compare the Chinese culture to the night sky? What are the stars referring to in your mind?

As I think, the brightest one must be the poetry culture.

During the Western Zhou Dynasty, poems of the earliest forms began to come out. They give me a feeling of today’s folklore( 民 間 傳 說). And the development of poetry reached the peak in the Tang Dynasty, which is commonly thought of as the summit period in the poetry history. I believe all of you know about that. So, will anybody forget Li Bai’s craziness about alcohol? Will anybody forget Du Fu’s deep love for his country and his loyalty? Will anybody forget Bai Juyi’s tears for the poor old starving man who sold coal for his living? We ought to answer these questions with complete confidence: No!

In fact, they’re the excellent expression of human being’s spirit world and Chinese culture. They possess an essence of immortality. They are by far the most lasting products in the history of Chinese literature and have been the common artistic wealth of the world as well.

During my study in Australia, the pupils asked me a lot of things about poetry culture. From this we can easily know that foreigners are interested in our poetry culture, too. However, when the poems are translated, they will lose part of their elegance, beauty and fantastic styles. This is a special aspect of the culture, and it also shows that our poetry culture is unique and absolutely outstanding. Thus, we should protect the wealth that our ancestors entrusted（托付） to us. We should take it on through time and tides. The poetry culture is just like the shiniest diamond on the crown. It is just so magnificent.

I’m so excited that there are tears in my eyes now. So many centuries ago, the poems were written; so many centuries back away from then, the speech is being given. The poems are still echoing, throughout history, over the time, and across the whole world. They will be echoing in my mind forever. They will never fade away.