FRAGMENTS FROM A FLOWER DIARY
花事记忆
By Nora Waln
诺拉·沃恩
FRAGMENTS FROM A FLOWER DIARY, by Nora Waln, from The Atlantic Monthly magazine, Vol. CLIV, No. 1, July, 1934, pp. 50-53.
Nora Waln, an American lady who came to China, married an Englishman, lived in Nanking, and who contributes to The Atlantic Monthly on Chinese subjects. Her book The House of Exile, describing her life in a Chinese family, has been very favorably received.
“Habits and customs differ, but all peoples have the love of flowers in common.”
“每个民族的风土人情各不相同，但是所有民族对花的喜爱是相同的。”—Chinese Proverb.
——中国谚语
I
一
It was in northern Hopei. The clouds had failed to gather in their season, and the time of showers has passed without rain. Parched by the midsummer sun, the earth was a dull beige in color. We had traveled three days over plains, valleys, and hills and seen nothing green except in the artificially irrigated plots near hamlets.
河北北部。云朵还没来得及如期聚集，雨季便已经过去了。在仲夏烈日的炙烤下，褐色的大地一片苍茫的景象。在平原上、山谷里和山丘间走了三天，除了村落附近灌溉过的土地，再没有见到绿色。
The ancient stone-paved trail led up along a narrow ledge. We waited at the foot for a line of pack coolies to come down. They were heavily laden with inland produce which they were transporting to the coast for foreign export. The containers roped on their backs towered high above their heads. Yet, despite his burden, the foremost man swerved out suddenly to the very edge of the cliff, and, as they came on, each of the nine men behind him did the same.
沿着古老的石头小径向上，就到了一处狭窄的岩架。一队挑夫正从这里下来，于是我们在下头等了一会儿。压在他们身上的是要运到海边出口海外的内陆土产。巨大的箱子通过绳子绑在背上，比脑袋都要高出许多。尽管负重艰难，领头的那位还是一下就侧过身去站到了悬崖边上，后面的九位也依样照做，继续行进。
When they had passed us, we began our climb. My pack coolie was before me. When I came up to the place round which the others had swerved, he had squatted down and was pouring the last of the contents of his drinking canteen into a crevice in the paving. There, through the dust between the stones, a wild rose had grown—a slender fragile tendril with five pale leaves and an open flower. A perfect flower, beautifully tinted, and sweetly fragrant. “It is from such a one as this,” my coolie said, “that we learn fortitude.”
等他们都过去了，我们就开始向上攀登。我的挑夫走在前面。等到我也走到大家都通过的转弯处，我看到他已经蹲在那儿，把水罐里最后几滴水洒到了路边的石缝里。原来在那乱石间的尘土中，有一株野玫瑰。纤细修长的藤蔓上点缀着五片萧疏的叶和一朵绽放的花。完美的花朵，层层渲染，吐露着芬芳。“就是从这样的花身上，”我的挑夫说道，“我们学会了坚韧。”
II
二
It was in the province of Kwangtung. The temple had once been beautifully furnished, but was now dirty and neglected. I chided the abbot concerning the dust on a Buddha's face. He did not answer me immediately. He led me across two courtyards and along a dark narrow passage.
广东省。曾经富丽堂皇的庙宇，如今脏乱不堪，无人照料。我向住持抱怨佛像脸上的积尘。他没有马上回答，而是领着我穿过两个庭院，沿着一条黑暗狭窄的通道向前走。
At the end of the passage he opened a door and motioned to me to pass him and go through it. Beyond the door, I stood in a tiny garden above a deep ravine. All was neat and tidy there. No weeds grew in the rich, much-worked loam. A low wall of carefully placed rocks kept the garden from sliding down the mountain side.
来到通道的尽头，他打开一扇门，示意我先过去。出了门，我踏进了一座深谷之上的小花园。一切都收拾得井井有条。精心打理的肥沃土壤上连杂草也无处可寻。在紧挨着山崖的一侧，还特意用石块堆砌了一座矮墙，守护着花园。
In his garden, the abbot spoke to me, saying, “The furniture on an altar is but the symbol of religion . . . in the face of a flower the heart of God is revealed.”
在花园里，住持对我说：“祭坛的摆设不过是宗教的符号……而在花的面前才能见到自性。”
I had no answer. At my feet were tall white lilies, each with a golden heart. Over my head a magnolia was in bloom.
我无言以对。脚下，百合花亭亭玉立，洁白的花瓣与金色的花蕊相得益彰。头顶上，一株玉兰正在盛开。
Lifting a clump of pansies with a careful trowel, the abbot planted them in an earthen pot, “Take this home,” he said.“If you are one who sincerely seeks the truth, by living with a flower you will find it.”
住持小心地铲起一小丛蝴蝶花，移到一个瓦盆里。“带回家去吧，”他说，“如果你想要心怀诚意，寻求真理，那么与花同在，就一定能找到。”
III
三
Bald-the-third, my serving matron, was stiff with anger. A filthy beggar had erected a mat shed against the wall of our residence at Nanking, and settled down to live just by the gate which led from our garden to the hill path.
我的女佣变得怒气冲冲，因为有个脏兮兮的乞丐在我们南京的居所墙外搭了个草棚，就这样在连接花园和山间小路的门边住下了。
He would have to go, she declared. Disease would be carried over the wall by every breeze. We should all be sick. Probably Small Girl would die of cholera.
她说这人必须得搬走，不然风会裹挟着他的病菌飘到墙里来。到时候我们都得遭殃，小姐说不定还要死于霍乱。
Bald-the-third went out to clear him away. Sometime later I discovered her seated on the sewing-room floor hemstitching a sheet, an occupation she often uses to calm herself when she has been overwrought.
然后她就出去了，要赶他离开。但过了一会儿，我见她坐在缝纫室地板上缝起被单来了。通常在心神不宁的时候，她会用这个办法来平息自己。
“Has the beggar gone?” I asked.
“要饭的走了吗？”我问。
“No—he is still there,” she answered.
“没有——他还在那里。”她回答。
“Oh! He defeated you in argument, did he?” I pressed her.
“哦！你没吵过他，是不是？”我追问道。
“I did not speak to him,” she said. “He has a sprig of jasmine growing in a broken pot, and has given it the least drafty place in his miserable shelter. He certainly hadn't much tea, but he was sharing what he had with the flower. I do not think that such a man will do us any harm. People can be too concerned regarding physical health and neglect the health of the spirit. I've sent him out a gift of rice and fish.”
“我没跟他讲话。”她说，“那个人拿破盆种了一小枝茉莉，放在草棚里风最小的地方。茶他肯定没多少，但是他把这仅有的东西拿出一些分给了花。我觉得这种人不至于伤害我们。人不能成天想着身体健康，反倒把精神健康给忽略了。我还给他拿了点儿米和鱼。”
IV
四
The Chinese love of flowers has been rewarded by genius in their cultivation. Certainly this is a transcendent capacity for taking trouble. Aided by their lovers' patient skill, blossoms open for their festivals all over the land despite the diversity of climate which makes the weather below zero in some districts when it is swelteringly hot in others.
中国人爱花，在种花方面也有如天助。这当然是一种苦心孤诣的境界。在爱花人的悉心呵护下，鲜花得以盛放在全国各地。要知道各处的气候天差地别，某些地区正值零度以下的寒冬之时，另一些地区已是闷热难耐。
Flowers are coddled, nursed, and coaxed. They are fed religiously. There is a vast lore of wisdom passed orally from generation to generation concerning the whims and peculiarities of different plants—also a voluminous detailed gardening literature in which the observations of centuries are garnered. In the House of Exile library there are forty books, considered classics, on the culture of chrysanthemums only, and nearly as many relating to dwarf trees.
花就这样被娇惯、伺候和抚弄着，被虔诚地供奉着。大量有关不同植物秉性的智慧结晶世代口耳相传——另外还有一套详尽的园艺文献汇集了几百年以来的观察记录。在寄庐图书馆，光是有关菊花种植的经典著作就有四十本，跟盆景有关的著述数量也不相上下。
In heat, plants are sheltered in the coolest places in the homestead, and shades are erected for blossoming trees, vines, and flowers which are stationary. I have seen people sit all through the breathless tropic noon fanning a drooping flower. In cold, plants are housed in paper shelters, their roots set in loam warmed by subterranean air pipes heated by buried charcoal.
天热起来，人们会把植物挪到院子里最阴凉的地方，并且给那些无法移动的开花树木、藤蔓和花草搭起遮阳篷。在闷得喘不过气来的酷热中午，我还曾经见到有人一直坐在那里，给一株耷拉下来的花扇风。到了寒冷的季节，又用纸把植物罩起来防冻，木炭提供的热气则通过地下空气管源源不断地输送到根部周围的土壤中。
These are constructed to-day exactly as decreed by a ruler of the State of Wei who lived more than two thousand years ago. He ordered that they should be so simply designed that even the poorest and the stupidest of his people might make one. In the most severe weather, florists clothe buds in little paper coats perforated with breathing holes.
今时今日的这些构造完全来自两千多年前卫国国君所颁布的法令。他要求这些构造的设计必须简单，让最贫穷和最笨拙的人也能做出来。在最恶劣的天气，花匠用带有呼吸孔的小纸袋给花苞一个个穿上衣服。
Although they perform an infinite amount of toil in bringing their flowers to perfection, florists charge astonishingly low prices. A florist once explained this to me. He told me that a country in which flowers—a necessity for the refinement of the heart—were priced so as to make them a luxury was a country which had yet to learn the first principles of civilization.
尽管花匠为了让花草保持最好的姿态而殚精竭虑，但他们收取的费用低得令人吃惊。一位花匠曾经跟我解释过这是为什么。他说花草乃是修身养性之道，如果哪个国家把花草作为奢侈品来定价，那么这个国家恐怕连文明最基本的原则都还没有弄明白。
V
五
According to Chinese legend, a flower presides over each month of the year, celebrating her anniversary on the fifth day after the rise of the new moon. It is usual for a minstrel, when he knocks at a homestead gate on a flower birthday, to ask to come in and sing the flower's ballads. Many tea shops have a story-teller as an attraction to patrons; and, passing on a flower's day, I have often heard the blind man entertaining the laborers, who gather round him when the day's toil is done, with the flower's fables.
在中国的传说中，每月都有一种月令花，在新月之后的第五天庆祝。诗人常常在花期到来之日敲开院门，要求进屋吟诵花的诗歌。许多茶铺都有一个讲故事的人来吸引顾客。在花的节日，我常在路过的时候，听到盲眼说书人在给下了工聚过来的人们讲花的寓言。
Narcissus is hostess of the first month, violet of the second, peach blossom of the third, which is a favorite month for weddings. In China the peach blossom is the wedding flower as the orange blossom is in America, and in ancient times marriage was celebrated with a festival at the season of the flowering of the peach orchards. Peony gives her name to the fourth month, but rose presides over the month. This is because “the peony is the millionaire's flower, symbol of riches and power; but the lovely rose belongs to everyone, as she graces cottage and palace impartially with her beauty.”
正月的女主人是水仙花，二月是紫罗兰，三月是桃花，而三月是婚礼最多的月份。桃花在中国是婚礼的象征，正如橙花之于美国婚礼一样。在中国古代，人们会在桃花花期的节日中庆祝美好的姻缘。四月用牡丹来命名，但玫瑰才是这个月真正的主人。因为“牡丹是富贵人家的花，象征着财富和权力；而可爱的玫瑰则属于每一个人，她的美丽优雅在乡野和庙堂面前毫无分别。”
The gentle jasmine is hostess of the fifth month. The lotus, symbol of purity because she grows out of the mud and is not soiled, reigns over the sixth month; balsam, famous for healing virtues, over the seventh; cassia flower, so small but so fragrant, over the eighth; chrysanthemum, beloved of scholars, over the ninth. Bright cheerful marigold is hostess of the tenth month; camellia of the eleventh; the flowering winter plum, whose petals are like the snowflakes, of the twelfth.
温柔的茉莉是五月的女主人。荷花出淤泥而不染，是纯洁的化身，主持六月；有治疗功效的凤仙花主持七月；娇小却馨香扑鼻的桂花主持八月；深得文人喜爱的菊花居于九月。明亮欢快的金盏花是十月的女主人；十一月的则是山茶花；冬季开花的梅花，花瓣就像雪花一样，是属于十二月的花。
And that no flower shall feel neglected, just because there are not enough months for all, a Birthday of All Flowers is celebrated on the twelfth day of the second month.
哪种花都不能被忽视，但因为一年不过十二个月，于是在农历二月十二设有百花节。
On All Flowers' Day it is polite to make “flower calls,” taking gifts of seeds and slips to one's friends. Every flower birthday is an appropriate occasion for a party. It is not even necessary to possess a garden to give a blossom tea. I know a Chinese lady in Peiping, an invalid with neither the means nor the strength to achieve a garden, who has a blossom tea every year. A branch of her neighbor's wisteria extends over her courtyard wall, and each spring, when the wisteria flowers, she asks her friends to come. One year the wisteria did not bloom. She had her party, gay as the previous ones, in memory of the blossoms.
百花节的礼仪是走亲访友，互相赠送花的种子作为礼物。花的生日适宜聚会。甚至不需要花园就可以举办花茶聚会。我认识北平一位体弱多病的中国小姐，既没有财力也没有精力来料理一座花园，但是每年都举办花茶聚会。邻居家有一枝紫藤爬进了她的院墙。每年到了紫藤开花的时候，她就请朋友们来做客。有一年紫藤并没有开花，她仍然兴高采烈地举办了聚会，以纪念往年的花开景象。
Wealthy families, who can, often give parties which are magnificent flower shows. These usually begin in the morning and last until well into the evening. After sunset the homestead is lit with silk lanterns placed to show each plant or flowering tree to the best advantage. Good manners permit one to go for as long or as short a time as one chooses.
有能力的富裕人家，往往在聚会时举办盛大的花卉展览。通常从清晨开始一直持续到傍晚。日落之后院子里会点起丝绸做的灯笼，让大家尽情地欣赏花木之美。只要举止得当，逗留时间的长短全凭个人的选择。
Chinese people do not like to cut their flowers, and seldom do. The flowers displayed at a party are growing, either in pots or in the ground. Poetry and art through the centuries have endowed each tree, vine, and plant with a symbolic significance, and the cultured are guided by this in their arrangement. In the home of a scholar one is certain to see the “three friends”—that is, the bamboo, the pine, and the plum—grouped together.
中国人不喜欢插花，因此很少这么做。聚会上展示的花朵，或盆栽，或地栽，都仍在生长。几百年以来的诗词绘画已经给每一种树木、藤蔓和植物赋予了象征意义，植物的摆放也受此影响。在文人的家里，一定会见到“三友”——也就是竹、松、梅——放置在一起。
The purpose of a flower party is to view the flowers, and tables for cards or mah jongg are considered in bad taste. Sometimes there is an open-air stage on which actors play the flower classics. At one party I attended, the little children of the house, dressed in flower costumes, danced a flower ballet of their own improvisation. Often someone who reads well is asked to read flower poetry.
赏花会的目的是为了观赏鲜花，而玩纸牌或者打麻将则被视为下品。有的时候，会搭起露天戏台表演那些赏花经典节目。有一回我参加了一个赏花会，那家的小孩穿上了花衣服，跳了一段即兴花舞。往往还会请擅于吟诵的人献上有关花的诗歌。
Flower picnics are also popular. The Lins give an orchard party when the fruit trees bloom each year. Friends make up travel parties and go from all over China to admire the azaleas near Ningpo. When the lovely lotus opens her tulip-shaped blossoms in the shallow bays of the water highways, families in every province give boat picnics.
花宴也颇受欢迎。林家在每年果树开花的时节会举办果树节。友人们会结伴同游，从各地赶到宁波附近观赏杜鹃花。美丽的荷花在河中的浅湾打开郁金香形状的花骨朵时，各省的家庭也会把席设在船上。
When I was preparing to attend the first flower festival to which I was invited, my mother-by-affection spoke to me about my dress, “One should honor the occasion by care in one's costume.” Shun-ko said, “But according to an ancient rule of decorum observed by the refined of heart, it is impolite to outdress the flowers. The flower-party gown should be dainty, clean, delicate in color, and fashioned on simple lines. A new fashion, however lovely, is out of place at a flower's party. The courteous hostess and her guests remember that it is to celebrate the flowers that people are gathered, and to wear a gown which distracts attention from the blossoms is rude.”
我第一次受邀参加花卉节日的时候，干妈告诉我着装的礼仪。“这样的场合每个人都要盛装出席。”顺阁说，“但是根据古老的礼仪，不宜穿得比花还要艳丽。出席赏花会的打扮应该讲究、干净、素雅、落落大方。奇装异服在花会上是不合时宜的。彬彬有礼的女主人与宾客们都知道，相聚是为了庆祝花开，衣着打扮如若分散了人们对花的注意力，是粗鲁无礼的。”
VI
六
I had been abroad for six months. Shortly after my return I needed a length of silk. I went to the place where Shih, the silk merchant, had opened a new shop just before I went away. The place was closed and appeared uninhabited. I made inquiry and I was told that he had gone back to his old address, where his father and his grandfather before him had done business.
我出国了六个月。回来后不久，想要买一匹丝绸。在我走之前，姓施的丝绸店主刚刚开了一间新店，所以我就去那里找他。店门关着，好像没有人。我打听了一下，得知他回到老店那里去了，那儿也是他的父亲和祖父曾经经营的地方。
I found him there. When I had made my selection and my bargain, over a cup of tea, I asked why he had left the Big Horse Road. He replied that it was not a good location.
我果然在那里找到了他。选完布料，谈定价钱，他给我沏了杯茶。我问他为何离开大马路，他说那地方不好。
“It is such a prominent place,” I said in astonishment.“Didn't you find that you had more customers there than here?”
“那地方多繁华，”我很是惊讶，“你不觉得那儿客人更多吗？”
“A merchant,” he informed me, “lives the major part of his life with his customers. The place was too prominent. Many came in just because it was convenient. They had long purses and they paid, but money is not everything.”
“做生意的人，”他告诉我，“生活的很大一部分是跟顾客打交道。那地方太繁华了。很多人光顾是因为方便。他们拿着长钱夹，付钱也很爽快，但钱并不是全部。”
The merchant's son, a boy of fourteen and heir to the business, further enlightened me. “This place is better for the future of our house,” he said. “On the Big Horse Road there was one who came who let the breath of February blow in on a flowering plum tree which we had set on the counter for the delight of gentlefolk.”
店家十四岁的儿子，也是继承生意的人，又给我举了个例子。“从长远来说，这个地方对我们家更好。”他说道，“在大马路的店里，我们在柜台上放了榆叶梅，给高雅人士欣赏，但是有人竟然让二月的冷风吹到花上来了。”
VII
七
I had lost my way and I had need to ask a policeman for direction. I drew my car up to the curb and waited. The policeman was occupied. Dressed in the splendid uniform copied from the city of San Francisco in which the American-educated governor of the town had clad all his republican police, this one was busy. Using his teapot as a watering can, he was watering the phlox which he had placed around his stance on the modern concrete road.
有一回我迷了路，不得不向巡捕问路。于是我把车停到路边等待，巡捕还在忙着打理手头的事务。他身上穿的制服效仿的是三藩市的警察服制，这个镇子的镇长是在美国受的教育，所以让他的共和国警察都穿上这种制服。岗哨建在现代的水泥路上，边上种上了夹竹桃，此时他正用茶壶给花朵浇水。
When he had finished, he gave me the information I requested. But before he signaled the permission for me to move on into the traffic he made a statement and asked a question: “There is no day in the year when flowers fail to bless China with their lovely charm,” and, “Is this also so in the Outer World?”
打理完毕，他给我指了路。在示意我可以继续上路之前，他跟我说：“一年里面每一天中国都有鲜花的庇佑。”然后问道，“在外国也是如此吗？”
（郑文博 译）
