去年冬天,得知德熙兄在美国患病的消息,虽然为他得的是难以治愈的癌症而感到震惊和忧虑,但总觉得在现代的医疗条件下至少还可以维持几年,总还有见面的机会。我曾写信劝他回国治疗,他也表示等病情略为稳定就回来。万万没有想到病情竟然迅速恶化,仅仅半年时间,还没有等到他回国治疗,病魔就夺去了他的生命。我和德熙兄是1952年分别从清华大学和燕京大学调到北大中文系工作时才认识的,那时他正忙于准备去保加利亚讲学,虽然住得很近,但来往不多。1955年他回国后,和我同在一个教研室讲授现代汉语课程,由于专业相同,爱好相近,不久就熟识起来,成为我在北大同事中来往最密切的朋友,共同在北大度过了几十年的风风雨雨。 Last winter, when I learned that DeX’s illness in the United States was alarmed and worrisome for what he acquired as a refractory cancer, he still feels that it can be maintained for at least a few years even under modern medical conditions. The chance to meet. I wrote a letter urging him to return to China for treatment, and he also said that he would come back if his condition was stable. Do not even think of the disease actually deteriorated rapidly, just half a year, has not waited until he returned to treatment, the disease took his life. I was acquainted with Dexi during my transfer from Tsinghua University and Yenching University to Peking University in 1952, when he was busy preparing to give a lecture in Bulgaria. Although he lived very close, he did not talk much. After returning to China in 1955, he and I were teaching modern Chinese courses in a teaching and research department. Since they had the same profession and similar hobbies, they soon became familiar with each other and became my closest friends among Peking University colleagues and spent decades in Peking Wind and rain.