The good rope I had lent to the two motor-cyclists was not returned today. Yesterday I met them half-way from school. I saw them walking with their motor bikes. One of the cycles seemed out of order and needed to be pulled by the other. They asked me for a rope because one of the men thought I must have. He often saw me carrying fuels on the road. Learning they are from the village near our school, I offered a solid rope to them. I demanded they return it later at the grocery by the road in the village.

The cuckoo bird is named Dujuan in poetry. Its
chirping solemnly reminds me of the remote past.

布谷詩名作杜鵑，叫聲綿邈思愀然。

Although I was acquainted with the bird’ s twittering,
I didn’t know its scientific name at all in my childhood. Forty⁃odd years have
passed since just like an instant.

童雉不識其稱謂，恍惚已過四十年。

Recent good weather makes it possible for me to take the short dirt path with little traffic. The road surface can be said smoother. Both the bike and the trike can pass the quiet route. Most of the path is just like a lane flanked by standing corn stems. Now that the rainy season has almost come to a close, I can enjoy the journey through it for the coming days. The road condition will be at its best in the harvest season for the transporting vehicles come back and forth all day long on it. This year the road seems not to be busy as before because some fields are either deserted or planted with trees or vegetables.

Li Bai improvised lines while drinking alone.
Zhang Xu wrote cursive characters after getting drunk.

李白獨酌以賦詩，張旭狂飲而揮毫。

Their inspiration must be the gift from God
and they are still held in high repute.

仙顚靈氣皆神注，遺響至今蕩雲霄。

Under the temptation of a sharp rise of
temperature the other day, the willow twigs got green quickly and the old
poplars were all in bloom; the weeds at the roadsides wildly spread. Strong winds
blew on and on for days. Cycling in the side wind, I had to incline my upper
body towards the direction from which the wind came. Yesterday the temperature
suddenly dropped to a few degrees above zero from twenty-odd degrees with a shower
in the high wind. The rain beat against the window-panes and left dirty marks on
the exterior. The western-style jacket wouldn’t do any more in such weather for it’s open at the bosom.
I put on another one in addition which can zip up at the front to keep warm.

Fell ill. Felt a little ill in the stomach yesterday when returning home. I think it might have been for my eating the muskmelon and drinking some cold boiled water. Nevertheless, I ladled a bowl of the liquid out of the cold porridge and drank it with some walnut seeds. Back in the flat I began to have diarrhea without desire to eat the half-rotten fruits any more. This morning at breakfast I had a poor appetite. Soon my stomach ached intolerably and accompanied by loose bowels and vomiting. I phoned brother asking him to buy some medicine. He was fully being occupied with selling sacrificial paper but he reluctantly consented to my request.

It’s pleasant that the day has brightened up. The rain
is suspended and the sun appears with a soft wind.

可喜今日天色開，雨住日出徐風來。I’ve ever known the novel Les Miserables long before. I’ve been
absorbed in it recently at night.

悲慘世界早聞説，近夕捧讀愛不舍。Victor Hugo is really adorable for his
talent and learning. Most films adapted from the masterpieces have blasphemed
against the originals.

雨果才學令人折，影視什九褻名作。

Comrade Zhong Yang had been a professor and a
doctoral supervisor at the College of Life Science of Fudan University before
his death. With the ideal to serve our country with science and technology, he
had dedicated his life to the research and protection on biodiversity for so
long. He had led his team collecting tens of millions of plant seeds for the
National Gene Bank from the Tibetan Plateau. With morally oriented self-cultivating, pursuing
studies and teaching, he had tried his best to help his students grow into talent.
Travelling across the remotest and the most hostile places of the region during
the hard sixteen years in aid of Tibet, he had made great
contributions to talent training, disciplinary construction and scientific
research in the west minority nationality regions.

The deeds of characters moving China in 2017 and
words of praise for them at the awarding ceremony

2017年度感动中国人物事迹及颁奖词Heaven has tender affection for remote grass;
mankind prizes the fine dusk after rain.

1、卢永根：天意怜幽草，人间重晚晴

That day I happened to find a new hole in one of the plastic woven sacks I use to contain the recyclable picked. The hole was wide enough to let an egg in. I thought it must be gnawed through by a rat. A large simulated corn-cob was just printed there, which the rat probably had mistaken for a true one. I could not help recalling an interesting anecdote many years ago. One of the little geese mother raised came over to me trying to bite the lower edge of my green jacket as a leaf. Not only the animals make such mistakes, but we people sometimes do the same without realizing it.