"Forever Young" or "For Ever Young"（原創）

Every time I go to the teaching building of our college from my dorm, I pass the playground where I can get a glimpse of those energetic boys and girls playing basketball.

It was a cloudy day today. This weekend from the gym beside my dorm came the non-stop sounds of Marching Music. The sports' meeting was being held there, but it was none of my business. It could not even give me two extra days holiday. Winter is coming, and the campus seems to be caught in the grip of the dry and plain.

 

However, when passing the playground, the day lit up soon. A boy ran for the ball full of sweat, carried it and then shot it into the basket in triumph. All these actions were finished within one minute. Then there came the cheers and giggles from the guys on the playground.

This kind of life seems to take place far away from me. I seldom go out for sports. The flatness of my belly retreats to the same plane with my chest while exhaling due to my lack of exercise. I feel a little envious of these young guys' lives.

It's hard to tell when I became so inanimate. I sometimes feel that I'm not leading a young lady's life.

Several days ago, I picked up a song named 'Forever Young' performed by two children. The children's pure voice touched me deeply. They sang "let us die young or let us live forever, we don't have the power but we never say never. They sang that it's hard to get old without a cause, I don't wanna perish like a fading horse……"

Someone said we are at the best of our life at this age but isn't it too early for us to feel nostalgic and sorrowful? Apparently even a ten-year old boy knows that he is no longer young. He said to his dead grandma:

"Sorry, grandma. It's not that I don't wanna talk to you, but that I think you must have known all that I can talk to you about. Otherwise, you would not always ask me to listen to you. They all said that you went out, and you didn't tell me where you went. So I guess, that must be a place we all know. Grandma, I miss you. Especially when I look at my younger cousin who still haven't got a name, I will think of the words you always tell me before: "I'm old……, and I want to tell him I'm getting old, too……"

Maybe one day, when I'm gray and out of energy, I will sing a song with my trembling voice: For Ever Young.

 

作者：四川大學通訊員 吳昭文   外專brendan審校