田美琪（第一名，江西师范大学）

汉译英

When the time for spring and summer to play their roles comes, both ordinary leaves and branches are suffused with patches of green. However, here stand two particular trees as an exception, of which one withers while the other prosperous, and on and on they make switches alternately. Once the leaves of the tree on the left turn green exuberantly, those of the right one come to show traces of yellow. The spiritless tree may even go so far as though it were in dormancy, appearing to be drooping, emaciated and withered up. Worse still, autumn swiftly turns into winter before any realizes it. Old though it is, the tree on the right never decays to death, but remains alive instead. On the approach of next spring and summer, it will have luxuriant foliage, overflowing with vigor once again. This time, the left tree’s leaves gradually turn yellow, as though in dormancy...In all, there seems to be a deal between the two of them, which goes like this：The one shrivels this year will thrive in the next, and vice versa.

The local people once told me that the two trees are incarnations of a devoted couple. In an attempt to avoid the evil imposed by the local tyrant, they committed suicide by diving into the river together, thus reincarnated as a couple of trees in the afterlife. I suppose this is but a fabricated story, but personally, I tend to be in favor of this explanation expounded by a wise man: Growing at the bank of Gold Water River, the tree couple took roots deeply beneath the cracks of rocks. The barren soil and hard stones made the nutrition insufficient for the survival of them both. Therefore, they take turns to live: During the year, one of them simply manages to keep itself going, with no hope of a sturdy growth; the other, on the contrary, exerts itself vigorously. In this way they avoid a malignant competition that will only lead to the destruction of both. “They should be regarded as‘co-existing’trees!”claims the wise man. How appropriate it is!

In our life, it is common to see people who lead a vain and humdrum life fighting with each other over rank, fame and fortune, yet neither side is unwilling to be outshine. More often than not, this chaotic mess merely bring about an unpleasant ending, turning friends to strangers. Meanwhile, those bear in mind the overall interests and help each other are put in important positions eventually. As a consequence, why don’t we draw a life lesson from those trees? Only with mutual assistance, an appreciation of modesty, and an art of “co-existence” are we able to save ourselves from the predicament jointly.