XU zhimo’spoemset tomusiconnewalbum

By Wiz Khalifa

At the back of King’s College there is a memorial stone in white marble commemorating an alumnus of the College,famous Chinese poet Xu Zhimo.Moving to the UK in 1921,Zhimo spent a year studying at King’s,where he fell in love not only with the romantic poetry of English poets like John Keats,but also with Cambridge itself.

His poem,Say Farewell to Cambridge,is arguably his most famous poem,and is now a compulsory text on Chinese literature syllabuses,learnt by millions of school children across the country every year.The poem paints an idyllic portrait of King's and the River Cam,and serves as a reminder of Xu Zhimo’s fondness for his time in Cambridge.

While the poem has been set to music many times before,King's has com missioned the first musical setting of the text by a mainstream classical composer.The new piece,by renowned English composer John Rutter,has been written and recorded in celebration of the near 100-year link between King's College and Xu Zhimo,and has come out on 26 January,2018 on a new album on the King's College Record Label.

“Many intellectual transformations happened for him while he was here and in some ways the whole seed of his development as a person who became an intellectual poet through the medium of poetry,all of which are connected up with his visit to Cambridge and the people we met.”,said Steve Cherry,vice dean of king's.

“John Rutter is a very resourceful composer,and Iwas delighted with the way he conceived of doing this,presenting most of the text through the tenor voice for which we engage the Chinese tenor.Well,I wanted to have a go myself at making an arrangement of it which would express something of what we do at King's.”,remarked Stephen Cleobury,who is the general conductor of the chorus of King's college.

“The inspiration I think came from the poem which is on the tablet by the bridge by the river camp here in the college.Apart from the tourist self and the words,which of course are quite big elements in it,it's not specifically intended to be a Chinese piece.It’s the sort of arrangement I would make for something like that,and it’s a very beautiful melody.”

在國王學院的后面，有一塊漢白玉紀念石碑，紀念學院的一位校友，著名的中國詩人徐志摩。1921他移居英國，花了一年時間在國王學院學習，在那里他愛上的不只有英國詩人約翰·濟慈的浪漫主義詩歌，還有劍橋本身。

徐志摩的詩《再別康橋》可以說是他最著名的詩，它現在是中國語文教學大綱必修文本之一，中國每年有上百萬學生學習。這首詩描繪了一幅田園詩般的國王學院和康河，并表現出徐志摩對劍橋時光的喜愛。

雖然這首詩已多次被配樂演繹，但國王學院委托了主流古典作曲家根據詩的文字進行創作。新作品由著名的英國作曲家約翰·盧特（John Rutter）擔綱，以銘記國王學院和徐志摩之間近100年的不解之緣，并已由國王學院的唱片公司于2018年1月26日發布。

“國王學院極大程度幫助徐志摩拓展了學識，并種下了日后成為一名才華橫溢的詩人的種子，通過對這首詩的音樂創作，我們把學院的美麗點滴和徐志摩本人在這里的美好體驗結合起來，重新帶給因他而尋訪的中國人民。”國王學院副院長史蒂文·切力(Steve Cherry)表示。

“他是個經驗豐富的作曲家，這次也通過與一名中國男高音歌唱家的合作充分體現了我們想表達的主題。其實我一直希望能夠做出一首表達出國王學院氣質的作品”，國王學院合唱團總指揮史蒂芬·克勞伯里(Stephen Cleobury)說。

“康橋邊石板上篆刻的詩給我帶來了靈感。除去詩歌本身是中文作品及大量因此而來的中國游客等因素，我并未刻意追求音樂本身的中國化。我只是覺得這樣的編曲和旋律是最適合的。”