"A Midsummer Night At Seaside" by Elaine Jiang ('19)

Soon after the setting sun sinks behind the hills, the afterglow like tangerine is still burning the western sky. The sea, which is also suffused with the afterglow dyes the sea a beautiful crimson. The scenery is even more magnificent than the sky. It is active, whenever rows of the waves surge, the rays shine on the crest of wave, red and bright, just like pieces of flash burning flame, twinkle and then disappear. While the back row, shining again, rolling and then flooding over. The glow in the sky is gradually fading out, the crimson turns to scarlet, the scarlet turns to light red. Finally, when all the red light is gone, the sky suddenly appears high and far away, and shows a solemn look. The earliest phosphor appears on the dark blue sky, flashing up. It is so big, so bright. The vast sky only where it emits impressive brilliance, like a lamp hanging in the high altitude of sky. The night sky is becoming thick, more and more lamps appear in the sky. And the real lights throughout the city are also lit up sequentially, especially that blaze of light around the hillsides surrounding the harbor, reflects in the black and blue sea from midair, with the waves, back and forth, flashing, like a string of flowing pearls, reflect splendor with the pieces of stars that embrace each other in the sky, how beautiful they are. In this beautiful night, I follow the soft sand along the beach, walk slowly forward. Then, the wind is rising, the midsummer night wind blowing at seaside, the combinatory fragrance of sea and crops is floating in the air. (Arise! Into the successive era! Break, my body, this pensive form! Drink, my chest, the birth of wind! A light air, exhaled from the sea, returns me my soul. The wind is rising! We should attempt to live! The immense air opens and closes my book, the wave dares gush to the rocks in powder!) “Debout! Dans l'ère successive! Brisez, mon corps, cette forme pensive! Buvez, mon sein, la naissance du vent! Une fraîcheur, de la mer exhalée, Me rend mon âme. Le vent se lève! . . . il faut tenter de vivre! L'air immense ouvre et referme mon livre, La vague en poudre ose jaillir des rocs!”(Le cimetière marin, Paul Valéry)