The Gay Genius Chapter27

I. The central question

Q: How did Su Tungpo felt when he was exiled to Hainan?

A: Just like Lin Yutang described in this chapter, Hainan was not a wonderful place for nowadays peple enjoy their vacation. One thousand years before, Hainan was a wild unsettled island. We can hardly imagine how did Su Tungpo went through this. Besides the shortage of the life necessities and difficult circumstances, there was also mental torture. Those officers who treated Su Tungpo well, will soon be punish by his opponents. So when Su Tungpo arrived Hainan, he thought maybe this place will be the end of his life, then he made coffin and grave. However, is doesn't means that Su Tungpo has nothing to do to this hardship. He did not live a passive life and he never lost the optimism and humor. Actually, he made his opponents have nothing to do. Even he was exiled, but we could say Su Tungpo was the one who won at last.

II. The sentences

1. Hainan was an island then under the Chinese empire, but inhabited chiefly by the Loi aborigines, with a sprinkling of Chinese settles on the northern coast.

inhabited chiefly by  主要被……占据

a sprinkling of    少量的

2. We eat here without meat, get sick without medicine, seek shelter without houses, go out without friends, go through winter without charcoal, and through summer without cold springs.

这句属于转译苏东坡原文，“此间食无肉，病无药，居无室，出无友，冬无炭，夏无寒泉”，英文的节奏与原文的节奏十分契合。

3. But his indomitable spirit and his philosophy of life hardly permitted him to lose his joy of living.

indomitable spirit  不屈的灵魂、坚韧不拔的精神