桂花雨 琦君英语译文

1、桂花雨                                             琦君    桂

2、花纷纷落下来，落得我们满头满身，我就喊：“啊！真像下雨，好香的雨啊。”     中 秋节前后，就是故乡的桂花季节。一提到桂花，那股子香味就仿佛闻到了。桂花有两种，月月开的称木樨，花朵较细小，呈淡黄色，台湾好像也有，我曾在走过人家 围墙外时闻到这股香味，一闻到就会引起乡愁。另一种称金桂，只有秋天才开，花朵较大，呈金黄色。我家的大宅院中，前后两大片旷场，沿着围墙，种的全是金 桂。惟有正屋大厅前的庭院中，种着两株木樨、两株绣球。还有父亲书房的廊檐下，是几盆茶花与木樨相间。     小 时候，我对无论什

3、么花，都不懂得欣赏。尽管父亲指指点点地告诉我，这是凌霄花，这是叮咚花、这是木碧花我除了记些名称外，最喜欢的还是桂花。桂花树不 像梅花那么有姿态，笨笨拙拙的，不开花时，只是满树茂密的叶子，开花季节也得仔细地从绿叶丛里找细花，它不与繁花斗艳。可是桂花的香气味，真是迷人。迷人 的原因，是它不但可以闻，还可以吃。“吃花”在诗人看来是多么俗气？但我宁可俗，就是爱桂花。     桂花，真叫我魂牵梦萦。     故 乡是近海县份，八月正是台风季节。母亲称之为“风水忌”。桂花一开放，母亲就开始担心了，“可别做风

4、水啊。”(就是台风来的意思。)她担心的第一是将收成 的稻谷，第二就是将收成的桂花。桂花也像桃梅李果，也有收成呢。母亲每天都要在前后院子走一遭，嘴里念着，“只要不做风水，我可以收几大箩，送一斗给胡宅 老爷爷，一斗给毛宅二婶婆，他们两家糕饼做得多”。原来桂花是糕饼的香料。桂花开得最茂盛时，不说香闻十里，至少前后左右十几家邻居，没有不浸在桂花香里 的。桂花成熟时，就应当“摇”，摇下来的桂花，朵朵完整、新鲜，如任它开过谢落在泥土里，尤其是被风雨吹落，那就湿漉漉的，香味差太多了。“摇桂花”对于 我是件大事，所以老是盯着母亲问：“妈，怎么还不摇桂花嘛？”母亲说：“还早呢，没开足，摇不下来的。”可是母亲一看

5、天空阴云密布，云脚长毛，就知道要 “做风水”了，赶紧吩咐长工提前“摇桂花”，这下，我可乐了。帮着在桂花树下铺篾簟，帮着抱住桂花树使劲地摇，桂花纷纷落下来，落得我们满头满身，我就 喊：“啊！真像下雨，好香的雨啊。”母亲洗净双手，撮一撮桂花放在水晶盘中，送到佛堂供佛。父亲点上檀香，炉烟袅袅，两种香混和在一起，佛堂就像神仙世 界。于是父亲诗兴发了，即时口占一绝：“细细香风淡淡烟，竞收桂子庆丰年。儿童解得摇花乐，花雨缤纷入梦甜。”诗虽不见得高明，但在我心目中，父亲确实是 才高八斗，出口成诗呢。     桂花摇落以后，全家动员，拣去小枝小叶，铺开在簟子里

6、，晒上好几天太阳，晒干了，收在铁罐子里，和在茶叶中泡茶、做桂花卤，过年时做糕饼。全年，整个村庄，都沉浸在桂花香中。     念 中学时到了杭州，杭州有一处名胜满觉垅，一座小小山坞，全是桂花，花开时那才是香闻十里。我们秋季远足，一定去满觉垅赏桂花。“赏花”是藉口，主要的是饱 餐“桂花栗子羹”。因满觉垅除桂花以外，还有栗子。花季栗子正成熟，软软的新剥栗子，和着西湖白莲藕粉一起煮，面上撒几朵桂花，那股子雅淡清香是无论如何 没有字眼形容的。即使不撒桂花也一样清香，因为栗子长在桂花丛中，本身就带有桂花香。    &

7、#160;我们边走边摇，桂花飘落如雨，地上不见泥土，铺满桂花，踩在花上软绵绵的，心中有点不忍。这大概就是母亲说的“金沙铺地，西方极乐世界”吧。母亲一生辛劳，无怨无艾，就是因为她心中有一个金沙铺地、玻璃琉璃的西方极乐世界。     我回家时，总捧一大袋桂花回来给母亲，可是母亲常常说：“杭州的桂花再香，还是比不得家乡旧宅院子里的金桂。” 于是，我又想起了在故乡童年时代的“摇花乐”，和那阵阵的桂花雨 Sweet Osmanthus Flowers Falling Like Rain Drops The days just before an

8、d just after the Mid-autumn Festival marked the season of the Sweet Osmanthus Flowers back in my hometown. Sweet Osmanthusthe very name brings the fragrance back to me. There are two kinds of Sweet Osmanthus. One comes from the family of plants known as cassia, and it blooms anew every month of the

9、year. Its flowers are a trifle smaller, a delicate yellow in hue. Taiwan ought to have it too. Ive picked up the aroma while strolling by peoples courtyard walls, and the scent alone is enough to give me a pinge of nostalgic sadness. Another variety is called Golden Osmanthus. It only blooms during

10、the autumn of the year, and the flowers are golden in color, and larger. In the middle of our old mansion there was a courtyard with a yard in both front and back, and a great wall that wound around the outside borders. Golden Osmanthus was planted all along the inside rim. Right there in the courty

11、ard directly in front of the main residence there were a couple of cassia bushes and a pair of what we called hydrangea plants. And in the area beneath the portico of Fathers study there were pots of camellia and sweet-scented osmanthus bushes. Now when I was small, I dont know why, but I never had

12、much appreciation for flowers, and it didnt matter a whit what kind they were. Father would have his fingers in the air and pointthis is a Chinese Trumpet Creeper, and this one is a Ring-a-Ding-ding-bell Flower, this is a wood-of-TurquoiseBesides remembering those names, what I recall is that the fl

13、ower I liked the very most was the Sweet Osmanthus. The Sweet Osmanthus bush isnt nearly as impressive in appearance as the plum tree. When its not in bloom it just stands there like a dullard, quite clumsy and stupid looking really, just a bush thickset with leaves is all it is. But then when its t

14、ime to blossom arrives, you search for these tiny delicate little buds that sprout amidst the leaves of green, and theres nothing in the whole wide world that can match it in beauty. But the aroma of Sweet Osmanthus can really put a spell on you. The reason it can put a spell on you is that you can

15、only just smell it, you can eat it too. Eating a flower. For a writer of poetry, isnt it stooping a bit low to put it that way? How utterly vulgar? But I would rather be vulgar, for thats what it means to me to be a Sweet Osmanthus lover. Sweet Osmanthus has really thrown a rope around my soul and d

16、reams. My hometown was in a county that was very close to the sea. The month of August was typhoon season, what Mother used to call the time of “the omen of wind and water.” The Sweet Osmanthus would start to blossom, and right away Mother would start into her worrying about the working of wind and

17、water. (That meant a typhoon would soon arrive.) The first thing she fretted over was getting the harvest in from the rice paddies, and the second was harvesting the Sweet Osmanthus. Sweet Osmanthus was like peaches and plums and pears; it had a harvest too. Mother would pace back and forth every da

18、y from one courtyard to the other, her lips mouthing and murmuring the words, “If only a typhoon wouldnt come, then I could bring in such a harvest, oh, so many baskets, and I could send over a basket for Good Old Gramps at the Hu household, and a basket too for Second Auntie over at the Maos. Those

19、 two families turn out so many cakes.” You could actually use Sweet Osmanthus as a fragrance in cake recipes. When Sweet Osmanthus flowers hit their peak, maybe you couldnt claim to smell them from ten lis1 away, but the aroma wafted all through the neighborhood air for a string of ten or so househo

20、lds. There wasnt a corner any place nearby where the fragrance didnt permeate. Now when the Sweet Osmanthus flowers burst into their fullest glory, there occurred what we called “the great shaking”. What was shaken down were the Sweet Osmanthus flowers, whole and complete and do I mean fresh, and th

21、e fragrance all round you would not be quite the same if they withered after their bloom and fluttered to the ground, which happened especially when the rain and wind would roar, and theyd be all theyd all sopping wet with the water. “The great shaking of the Sweet Osmanthus” was a magnificent pheno

22、menon as far as I was concerned. And so Id always be fixing my eyes on Mother and asking her, “Ma, how come we havent had the great shaking yet?” Mother would answer, “Its still too early, they havent blossomed yet. Theres nothing to shake loose.” But as soon as Mother caught sight of great bunches

23、of dark clouds in the sky above, when the clouds formed “sky toes and tail feathers,” then she knew “the wind and water are working,” and quickly she would send the order out for the house workers to get ready for “the great shaking of the Sweet Osmanthus.” When that happened, was I ever happy! I he

24、lped with the spreading out of the thick mats beneath the Sweet Osmanthus branches, and then I grabbed at the Osmanthus branches and gave them a gentle tug, and the Osmanthus flowers would shower down upon me, and cover me from the tip of my ears to the end of my toe nails, and I would shout, “Wow!

25、Its just rain like rain drops, sweet smelling rain drops! Wow!” Mother would wash her hands and then gather up some of the Osmanthus flowers onto a platter of sparkling crystal glass, and then it was off to pay our respects to the Buddha at the family shrine. Father would light the incense at the al

26、tar. Slender strands of smoke would rise and vanish into the air above, the two fragrances mixed together, the Buddhist Temple seemed just like the Land of the Immortals. Then Fathers poetic chant would happen. He would just break out into a four line poem he improvised right there on the spot.Slend

27、er streams of fragrance and hallowed scentWith holy fumesHands so swift for harvest of OsmanthusForetell a prosperous yearChildren all knowThe joy and mirth of The wondrous shakingBlossoms like drops of gentle rain infuse a childs dreamTender beyond all measure These poetic verseswell, perhaps they

28、not seem all that spectacular. But in the eyes of my heart, I saw a Father who stood tall with mighty genius, that he could create verse like that! After we were done with the shaking and the gathering of the Osmanthus flowers, everyone in the family would lend a hand to tear off the tiny little twi

29、glets and leaves, and spread them out on the mats, and wed let the sun send down its rays to dry them out for a few days. Then we gathered them all together into steel vats, so they could be mixed with tea leaves for drinks, or be used to make Osmanthus concentrate, or to sweeten cakes at the time o

30、f the Chinese New Year. The whole year long, all through our village, we were steeped in the scent of Sweet Osmanthus. I went to Hangchou for middle school. Hangchow had a resort called Man Chueh Lung, a tiny little niche in the mountains. It was covered with Sweet Osmanthus, and when those flowers

31、hit their peak, you could smell them from here to forever. In the autumn we would go hiking, and of course we just had to go to Man Chueh Lung to enjoy the Sweet Osmanthus. “To enjoy the Sweet Osmanthus” was just an excuse though, for the important thing was to fill up on a kind of Sweet Osmanthus b

32、roth. In addition to Sweet Osmanthus, Man Chueh Lung also had chestnuts. The chestnuts would ripen, and there was this velvety soft peeling on them, and they would mix and blend it with lily pods all the way from famous His-hu, the West Lake, and on top it they sprinkled Osmanthus petals that gave t

33、he concoction an aroma that no matter what you did, theres no way in the world you could find the words to describe how good it was. Although none of the Sweet Osmanthus flowers were sprinkled into the broth, they still played a part in the aroma, since the chestnuts themselves carried the scent, having nestled amidst the Osmanthus branches. As we hiked along, we reached out and shook the branches. Sweet Osmanthus