Renowned translator Mr. Han Wenyan passed away from illness at 10 a.m. on April 9 this year.
He was 65.
His wife, Ms. Yao Mingwen, was not overcome with grief. She personally wrote a couplet in his memory.
"Beneath the bright moon and clear breeze, I cherish our old home; amid the remnant hills and waters, I read your final poems."
"Even a brief parting startles me like a dream; how could we ever speak again?"
Yao Mingwen sat alone in the mourning hall for a long time, smiling at her husband's portrait. "Old Han, I won't cry for you. This lifetime was enough for us."
In 2022, Ms. Yao began writing her memoirs.
"Every word cuts to the heart. I almost couldn't go on."
"But Old Han is gone, and I want to leave something behind about us."
"I'm not grieving. Old Han told me again and again not to cry. Life and death go in cycles, and one day we'll meet again."
"Time, after he left, became so slow and long. That's all right. I'll see more of the world on his behalf."
The memoir was published when Ms. Yao was 75, under the title Our Half a Lifetime.
Ms. Yao lived a long life and passed away peacefully in her sleep in her nineties.
Her sleeping face was serene, her expression peaceful.
Long, long ago, after finishing a book, she had once slept just as soundly.
When she woke, a blanket had been draped over her.
He sat in a rocking chair, flipping through an Oxford dictionary. Looking up at her with a smile, he said, "You were sleeping so soundly, I couldn't wake you, so I had to cover you with a blanket."
She replied, "I was having such a lovely dream. I didn't want to wake up."
He asked curiously, "What were you dreaming about that made you so reluctant to wake?"
"I dreamed I was eighteen again, meeting you for the first time at a villa on Fragrant Hills. You asked me to dance."
"Decades have flown by in an instant. We can't dance anymore."
Han Wenyan looked at his wife. "But in my eyes, you're still the most beautiful."
Half a lifetime has passed, and we have parted.
I think back on it all, grieving for the spring days of old.
Then I find peace again, unwilling to remain sorrowful.
In the next life, we'll seek each other out again.
Inspired by the song Our Half a Lifetime
"Please believe that love and hope will always be there."
Theme: Warm feelings never decay
