这是虽在北方风雪的压迫下却保持着倔强挺立的一种树！
They stand erect and unbending in face of North China's as violent wind and snow.
哪怕只有碗那样粗细罢，他却努力向上发展，高到丈许，两丈，参天耸立，不折不挠，对抗着西北风。
Though they may be only as big as the mouth of a bowl, they strive to grow upwards until they reach the towering height of some twenty feet and stand indomitable against the northwest wind.
这就是白杨树，西北极普通的一种树，然而决不是平凡的树！
Though very common in Northwest China, they are no ordinary trees!
但是它却是伟岸，正直，质朴，严肃，也不缺乏温和，更不用提它的坚强不屈与挺拔，它是树中的伟丈夫。
But nevertheless, they are big and tall, honest and upright, simple and plain, earnest and unyielding -- and not without gentleness and warm though.
当你在积雪初融的高原上走过，看见平坦的大地上傲然挺立这么一株或一排白杨树，难道你只觉得它是树？
When you trudge through the melting snow of the highland and see one or a row of white poplars standing proudly on the vast plains, how could you look up on them as nothing but mere trees?
难道你就不想到它的质朴，严肃，坚强不屈，至少也象征了北方的农民，就想这白杨树一样傲然挺立的守卫他们家乡的哨兵？
How could you forget that with all the simplicity, earnestness and unyieldingness, they are symbolic of our peasants in the North?
难道你又不更远一点想到这样枝枝叶叶靠紧团结，力求上进的白杨树，宛然象征了今天在华北平原纵横决荡，用血写出新中国历史的那种精神和意志。
How did you fail to see that these trees, ever striving to put out that closely knit branches and leaves in an upward direction, symbolic of the spirit and will of our men who, fighting heroically all over the north in plains, I'm writing the history of New China with their own blood?
白杨不是平凡的树，它在西北极普遍，不被人重视，就跟北方农民相似，它有极强的生命力，磨折不了，压迫不到，也跟北方的农民相似。
For these common trees in northwest China or as much ignored as our peasants in the North.
我赞美白杨树，就因为它不但象征了北方的农民，尤其象征了今天我们民族解放斗争中所不可缺的质朴，坚强，力求上进的精神。
I pay tribute to them because they symbolize our peasants in the North and, in particular, the spirit of honesty, tenacity and forging ahead -- a spirit central to our struggle for national liberation.
让那些看不起民众、贱视民众、顽固的倒退的人们去赞美那贵族化的楠木（那也是直挺秀颀的），去鄙视这极常见、极易生长的白杨树罢，我要高声赞美白杨树！
The reactionary diehards, who despise and snub the common people, can do whatever they like to eulogize the elite nanmu (which is also tall, straight and good-looking) and look down upon the common, fast-growing white poplar.