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轻轻的我走了

輕輕的我走了
qīngqīngdewǒzǒule
phrase

Meanings

  1. 1 softly I am leaving
  2. 2 (fig.) the trademark tender, weightless farewell — famously from Xu Zhimo's Cambridge poem
  3. 3 (lit.) softly-softly I go-PAST

Examples

毕业典礼上，他朗诵轻轻的我走了，全场都安静下来。
Bìyè diǎnlǐ shàng, tā lǎngsòng qīngqīng de wǒ zǒu le, quánchǎng dōu ānjìng xiàlái.
At graduation he recited 'softly I am leaving' — the whole hall fell silent.
轻轻的我走了，正如我轻轻的来——徐志摩最著名的一句。
Qīngqīng de wǒ zǒu le, zhèng rú wǒ qīngqīng de lái — Xú Zhìmó zuì zhùmíng de yījù.
'Softly I am leaving, just as I came softly' — Xu Zhimo's most famous line.

Tips

history
The opening line of 徐志摩《再别康桥》(Xu Zhimo, Second Farewell to Cambridge, 1928): 轻轻的我走了，正如我轻轻的来；我轻轻的招手，作别西天的云彩 (Softly I am leaving, just as softly I came; I softly wave my hand, saying goodbye to the western sky's clouds). Written on a steamship returning to China after Xu revisited King's College, Cambridge, where he had studied 1921–22. Paired with the closing stanza 悄悄的我走了...不带走一片云彩, it bookends the most famous short poem in modern Chinese literature.
usage
Modern baihua poetry. 的 here functions adverbially (轻轻的 = softly), not as the possessive particle — characteristic of 1920s–30s prose-poem register. Always paired with 正如我轻轻的来.

Stroke Order

轻 qīng
的 de
我 wǒ
走 zǒu
了 le