(1891–1962)
A leader of the New Culture Movement, Hu Shih was born in Shanghai in 1891. In 1910 he went to America to study agriculture at Cornell University, but soon switched his major to philosophy and literature. After graduation, he pursued a doctoral degree in philosophy at Columbia University and became a lifelong follower of John Dewey’s Pragmatism. In 1917 Hu published “A Modest Proposal for the Reform of Literature,” in which he proposes to replace classical Chinese with vernacular Chinese as a literary language, thereby breaking the tyranny of the classics. His book Experimental Verses, published in 1920, was the first volume of poetry written in vernacular Chinese. A key figure in twentieth century literature and scholarship, Hu also served as China’s ambassador to the United States (1938–42), Chancellor of Peking University (1946–48), and president of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, where he died of a heart attack in 1962.
Two yellow butterflies
In pair fly to the skies;
I don’t know why
One suddenly returns
Leaving the other one
Lonely and pitiful.
It too has no heart to fly into the skies,
For heaven is too lonely a place.
—1916
All is commonplace experience,
All is commonplace impression.
By chance they rush into a dream
They are transformed into many new patterns.
All is commonplace sentiment,
All is commonplace word,
By chance they meet a poet
They are transformed into many new poems.
Only after being drunk does one know the wine is strong,
Only after having loved does one know the depth of love.
You can never write my poems,
I can never dream your dreams.
—1920
Over ten years ago
Someone gave me a smile.
At the time—I did not know why—
I only felt that he smiled well.
I don’t know what happened to that man,
But his smile remained;
Not only could I not forget him,
But the longer the smile lasted, the more lovable it became.
I have written many love poems on it,
I have made many different settings for it;
Some felt sad reading the verse,
Others felt gay reading the verse.
Gay or sad,
It is only a smile.
I have never found that man who smiled,
But I am grateful for his lovely smile.
—1920
(Translated by Julia C. Lin)
Wishing to have no love at all
And avoid the bitterness of loveless love
But after weighing my options
Willing to have lovesick thoughts of love
—1919
(Translated by Glenn D. Mott)