Childhood Friendship —To Hongzhu, My Friend Tr. By Richard Tornello
To those without close affinity, parting means forever. Having strong appeal to each other we were fated to meet again to continue our friendship.
After an interval of more than twenty years, when we met though suffering a little hair loss, I saw you as still so pure. Others appraise your today but I can tell what you were when you were a little girl.
Who says you are already middle-aged? My eyes clearly skipped that, only seeing your childhood smiling face and glow.
There are shadows of your childhood, In your moves. I can make you return to the childhood-you even without turning into a fairy to do it.
The brave you, who once took a pair of scissors with one stroke cut my long braids short. In those years we led a sweet life with empty purses. In those years we were as charming as lilys though we couldn’t afford slip dresses.
We used to play under the same clover tree in a pure land that refused pollution. We used to sing in the same boat on a holy water that didn’t tolerate infringement.
The puerility of our behavior, then the junior years we got through together, typecast both your life and mine. Your childhood is mine and mine is yours
It’s true that mountains may changed into seas and seas may change into mulberry fields. But the unchangeable is childhood friendship, it’s the most beautiful broad accent. It’s the origin of life. From there a cluster of white doves sets out on a flight toward future.