向一位著名的女作家祝贺她80岁寿辰，这样的机会是不多的，所以我去年10月5日到冰心家里去的时候，心情非常激动。我解释说希望她给我讲一下自己是怎样成为诗人的。“我已有多年没有写诗了，”冰心微笑着说，“可是我还是爱读好诗。”

It is a precious chance to celebrate a famous woman writer's 80th birthday, so l was excited to visit Bing Xin on October 5th last year. I told her I wished to know how she had become a poetess. "It is years since I wrote poems, "she smiled, "but I still enjoy reading good ones."

1900年10月冰心出生于福建福州，1901年其全家迁至上海。幸运的是，冰心有鼓励她学习和写作的父母。1919年她在北京一所女子学院念书时，一个事件改变了她生命的整个道路。那就是五四运动，一个由北京学生发动的爱国民主运动。群众游行示威的场面给冰心以深刻的印象。她投身于斗争中，并被学生会任命负责宣传工作。冰心写了诗歌、文章和故事，以抨击帝国主义和各种形式的封建主义。本来向往当医生的她开始转向文学创作。

Born in Fuzhou, Fujian Province in October 1900, she moved with her parents to Shanghai in 1901. She was lucky that both her parents encouraged her to study and write. In 1919, when she was studying at a women's college in Beijing, her entire life was changed by the May Fourth Movement, a patriotic movement for democracy launched by the students in that city. The demonstration impressed her so much that she devoted herself to the struggle, nominated by the Stdents' Union to take charge of the promotion of the struggle. She wrote poems, essays and stories to attack imperialism and all forms of feudalism. Then she turned to writing though she had dreamed of becoming a doctor.

1923年大学毕业后，冰心到美国去学文学，在旅途中和在美国居留中写下了自己的感受。这些都收在一个集子里出版，就是《寄小读者》。这本书使冰心声誉突起，不仅因为她是一位女作家，还因为书中的高尚情操。有不少较年轻的作家说，是冰心的作品使走上了其后所走的道路。

In 1923, she went to the United States to study literature and during her trip and her stay there she wrote about her feelings. All of those writings were collected into the book To Young Readers, which made her famous immediately, not only because of her gender but also because of the noble sentiments in it. Quite a few younger writers say that it was her works that inspired them to take writing as their career.

来源：翻译大王