养花
作者： 老舍
译者：深圳大学 赖小琪
我爱花，所以也爱养花。我可还没成为养花专家，因为没有工夫去作研究与试验。我只把养花当作生活中的一种乐趣，花开得大小好坏都不计较，只要开花，我就高兴。在我的小院中，到夏天，满是花草，小猫儿们只好上房去玩耍，地上没有它们的运动场。
I love flowers, so I love to grow them. I am still not a gardener due to the insufficient time to research and experiment. I simply take flower cultivation as a pleasure in my life. I feel delighted as long as my flowers bloom regardless of the size and preciousness of the blossoms. In my little yard, there are a variety of flowers and plants, which keep cats away to our rooms.
花虽多，但无奇花异草。珍贵的花草不易养活，看着一棵好花生病欲死是件难过的事。我不愿时时落泪。北京的气候，对养花来说，不算很好。冬天冷，春天多风，夏天不是干旱就是大雨倾盆；秋天最好，可是忽然会闹霜冻。在这种气候里，想把南方的好花养活，我还没有那么大的本事。因此，我只养些好种易活、自己会奋斗的花草。
Many flowers as I have planted, they are not exotic or rare. Precious flowers are not easily kept and witnessing a good flower dying of disease is nothing more than sadness. I do not want to tear frequently. The climate of Beijing is not fit for growing flowers. It is icy in winter and windy in spring. It is either too dry or too rainy in summer. Autumn should be the most favorable, but now and again it will suffer from sudden frost. In this kind of climate, it is far beyond my capacity to grow delicate flowes of southern species. Therefore, I only grow some flowers and plants that are tough and of great self-survival.
不过，尽管花草自己会奋斗，我若置之不理，任其自生自灭，它们多数还是会死了的。我得天天照管它们，象好朋友似的关切它们。一来二去，我摸着一些门道：有的喜阴，就别放在太阳地里，有的喜干，就别多浇水。这是个乐趣，摸住门道，花草养活了，而且三年五载老活着、开花，多么有意思呀！不是乱吹，这就是知识呀！多得些知识，一定不是坏事。
Nonetheless, though many flowers are able to struggle by themselves, if totally left alone, most of them tend to die eventually. Hence, I have to take good care of them every day as if they are my good friends. Through day-after-day practice, I manage to get the hang of fostering flowers. Some flowers should not be put in the sun for they love shadowy places, while some should not be watered too much for they love to maintain dry. It is literally a pleasure to foster flowers successfully which can consistently live and blossom for many years with approriate cultivating skills. It is not boasting but knowleldgle! It is definitely a good thing to learn more knowledge.
我不是有腿病吗，不但不利于行，也不利于久坐。我不知道花草们受我的照顾，感谢我不感谢；我可得感谢它们。在我工作的时候，我总是写了几十个字，就到院中去看看，浇浇这棵，搬搬那盆，然后回到屋中再写一点，然后再出去，如此循环，把脑力劳动与体力劳动结合到一起，有益身心，胜于吃药。要是赶上狂风暴雨或天气突变哪，就得全家动员，抢救花草，十分紧张。几百盆花，都要很快地抢到屋里去，使人腰酸腿疼，热汗直流。第二天，天气好转，又得把花儿都搬出去，就又一次腰酸腿疼，热汗直流。可是，这多么有意思呀！不劳动，连棵花儿也养不活，这难道不是真理么？
I suffer from leg trouble that renders me neither walk nor sit too long. I have no idea whether those flowers tended by me are feeling grateful to my efforts, but I do feel thankful to them. When I get involved in my work, I will go to have a look at the flowers in the yard after writing a few dozen words, watering them or moving them to another places. Then I will go back to write more, and then I will go to the yard again. I will recycle this process again and again, combining mental labor and manual labor together, which is way more beneficial to my health than any medicine. If a sudden rainstorm occurs, all of my families have to get engaged in the rescue work, moving hundreds of flowers into the room, which leaves us painful, sweaty and exhausted all over our bodies. But how interesting it is! Without hard work, we can never keep a flower alive. Isn’t it a truth?
送牛奶的同志，进门就夸“好香”！这使我们全家都感到骄傲。赶到昙花开放的时候，约几位朋友来看看，更有秉烛夜游的神气——昙花总在夜里放蕊。花儿分根了，一棵分为数棵，就赠给朋友们一些；看着友人拿走自己的劳动果实，心里自然特别喜欢。
It makes all of my falimily proud to hear milkman exclaim “what an aromatic smell!” on entering our gate. When it comes to the time the night-blooming cereuses are about to blossom, I will invite several friends to appreciate them. It is kind of an atmosphere of touring with candlelight at night. Cereuses tend to bloom at night. When they bunch up, I will pick up some to give my friends as a gift. I feel considerably joyful when seeing my friends taking away my fruits of labor.
当然，也有伤心的时候，今年夏天就有这么一回。三百株菊秧还在地上（没到移入盆中的时候），下了暴雨。邻家的墙倒了下来，菊秧被砸死者约三十多种，一百多棵！全家都几天没有笑容！
Of course i also have some unhappy time. This summer is a typical example. It rained cats and dogs before we moved three hundred chrysanthemum seedlings back room from the yard. Worse still, the neighboring wall collapsed and crushed dead more than 30 species, 100 seedlings. Smile was absent from our face for several days.
有喜有忧，有笑有泪，有花有实，有香有色，既须劳动，又长见识，这就是养花的乐趣
Happiness and sorrow, smiles and tears, flowers and fruits, perfume and color, labor and accumulative knowledge, all of these are the pleasure of cultivating flowers. |
