I'm very upset these days. Sitting in the yard enjoying the cool tonight, I suddenly remembered the lotus pond passing by every day. It should look different at this full moon. The moon rises gradually, and the children's laughter on the road outside the wall can no longer be heard; My wife is patting and skipping in the room, humming a sleeping song in a daze. I slipped on a big shirt and ran out the door.
Along the lotus pond, there is a winding little cinder road. This is a secluded road; Few people walk during the day, and it is lonely at night. The lotus pond is surrounded by trees, which is very gloomy. On one side of the road, there are some willows and some trees with unknown names. On a moonless night, the road is gloomy and a little scary. It's fine tonight, although the moonlight is still very weak.
I was the only one on the road, walking around with my hands behind my back. This world seems to be mine; I also like to go beyond my usual self and go to another world. I love excitement and peace; Like to live in groups, like to be alone. Just like tonight, under this boundless moon, a person thinks about everything and thinks nothing, and feels like a free person. What must be done and said during the day can be ignored now. This is the beauty of being alone, and I will enjoy the boundless moonlight with lotus fragrance.
On the winding lotus pond, I look forward to the leaves of Tian Tian. The leaves are high out of the water, like an elegant dancer's skirt. Among the layers of leaves, some white flowers are scattered, some bloom gracefully, and some bloom shyly; Like a pearl, like a star in the blue sky, like a beauty who just took a bath. The breeze blew, sending wisps of fragrance, like a faint song on a tall building in the distance. At this time, the leaves and flowers also trembled slightly, like lightning, passing through the lotus pond in an instant. The leaves are close side by side, so there are clear wave marks. Below the leaves is the running water of the pulse (mi), which is covered and can't see some colors; Leaves are more exposed to the wind.
Moonlight, like running water, falls quietly on this leaf and flower. A thin layer of blue mist floats in the lotus pond. Leaves and flowers seem to have been washed in milk; Like a dream in a sarong. Although it is a full moon, there are faint clouds in the sky, so it can't shine; But I think this is just a benefit-deep sleep is indispensable, and nap is unique. Moonlight shines through the trees, and the bushes at the height cast uneven and mottled shadows, which are as steep as ghosts; The sparse shadows of curved willows seem to be painted on lotus leaves. The moonlight in the pond is uneven; Light and shadow have a harmonious melody, such as a famous song played by Van Gogh Ling.
Around the lotus pond, there are trees far and near, and willows are the most. These trees surround a lotus pond; Only on one side of the path, there are some gaps, which seem to be reserved for moonlight. An example of the color of trees is cloudy, which at first glance looks like a cloud of smoke; But the abundance of willows can be recognized in the smoke. There are distant mountains on the treetops, just a little careless. There are still one or two lamps leaking through the cracks in the tree. What is listless is the eyes of those who are sleepy. At this time, the most lively are cicadas in the tree and frogs in the water; But the excitement is theirs. I have nothing.
I suddenly remembered the matter of picking lotus. Lotus picking is an ancient custom in the south of the Yangtze River. It seems to have a long history, but it flourished in the Six Dynasties. You can get a rough idea from this poem. Lotus pickers are teenage girls, swinging boats and singing bright songs. Needless to say, there are many lotus pickers. It was a lively season and a romantic season. Emperor Liang Yuan put it well in "Lotus Picking Fu":
Therefore, the demon Yuan (yuán) is female, and she is willing to row; The snipe (y √) makes the first Xu Hui and passes the feather cup; Zhào can move, but algae can hang, and the ship can move and sail. Erqi slim waist bundle element, Yan Gubu; After the spring in long summer, the young leaves blossom early, and they are afraid to touch the petticoats when laughing, but afraid to tilt the boat when picking (jū).
It can be seen that there were wandering scenes at that time. This is really interesting, but unfortunately we are not happy now.
Then I remembered the words in Song of Xizhou:
Lotus is picked in autumn in Nantang, and the lotus is over the head; With his head down, he fiddled with the lotus seeds in the water, which were as green as the lake. If there are lotus pickers tonight, the lotus here will be considered "over the top"; You can't just see some shadows of running water. This makes me really miss Jiangnan.
Thinking like this, I suddenly looked up and felt that it was my own door; Gently pushed the door in, there was no sound, and my wife had slept for a long time.
Autumn in the ancient capital
Autumn, no matter where, is always good; However, the autumn in the north is particularly clear, quiet and sad. The reason why I have traveled thousands of miles from Hangzhou to Qingdao, and even from Qingdao to Peiping, is to enjoy this "autumn", the autumn flavor of this old capital.
Jiangnan, of course, there is autumn; But the grass is carved slowly, the air is moist, the sky is pale, and it often rains and windy; A person sandwiched between Suzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou, or Xiamen, Hong Kong and Guangzhou can only feel a little coolness, and the taste, color, artistic conception and posture of autumn can never be fully satisfied, tasted and enjoyed. Autumn is not a famous flower, nor is it wine. Half-drunk is not suitable for enjoying autumn.
It has been nearly ten years since autumn in the north. Every autumn in the south, I always think of the reed flowers in Taoranting, the willow shadows in Diaoyutai, the insects in Xishan, the jathyapple in Yuquan and the bells in Tanzhe Temple. Even if you don't go out in Beiping, you can rent a shabby house and live in the sea of people in the imperial city. Get up in the morning, make a bowl of strong tea and sit in the yard, you can see the high blue sky and hear the pigeons flying in the blue sky. From the bottom of Sophora japonica leaves, counting a ray of sunshine leaking to the east, or in the broken waist, facing the blue morning glory like morning glory, you can naturally feel the autumn breath. When it comes to morning glory, I think blue or white is the best, followed by purple and black, and pink is the lowest. It is best to have a few sparse and slender autumn grasses as a foil at the bottom of the morning glory.
The locust tree in the northland is also an ornament that can remind people of Qiu Lai. Like flowers, but not flowers, they will spread all over the floor in the morning. When you step on it, there is no sound, no smell, only a little tiny and soft touch. After sweeping the street in the shade, the silk pattern of the broom falling on the dust looks exquisite, leisurely and subconsciously lonely. The ancient dream that the world knows autumn is in these depths.
Qiu Chan's faint lingering sound is a specialty of the north; Because there are trees everywhere in Beiping and the houses are low, you can hear them singing everywhere. In the south, you have to go to the suburbs or the mountains to hear Qiu Chan's cry, which is like a cricket and a mouse in Beiping and a housefly that every household keeps at home.
There is also autumn rain. The autumn rain in the north seems to be stranger, more delicious and more decent than that in the south.
Under the gloomy sky, a cool breeze suddenly came and it began to rain. Under a layer of rain, the clouds gradually rolled to the west, the sky turned blue again, and the sun appeared again; Wearing thick green shirts or jackets, idle people in the city bite their pipes and walk up and stand under the bridge in the shadow of the oblique bridge after the rain. When they meet acquaintances, they will use a slow tone and say with a sigh:
"Oh, it's cold-""This word is pronounced very high and dragged on for a long time. )
"Isn't it? A layer of autumn rain is cold! "
Northerners always read array characters like layers of words, which are flat and even. This mispronounced rhyme is just right.
Fruit trees in the north are also a miracle for Qiu Lai. The first is jujube; It will grow up in the corner, on the wall, beside the toilet and at the door of the kitchen. This is the heyday of autumn. Like olives and pigeon eggs, jujube trees show light green and yellow in small oval leaves. Jujube leaves fall, jujube is red, and there will be a northwest wind. Convenience in the north is a dusty world. Only these dates, persimmons and grapes ripen at the turn of July and August, which is a good day for clear autumn in the north and the best golden day of the year.
Some critics say that China's bachelor of arts, especially poets, are full of decadent colors, so there are many words praising autumn in China's poems. But what about foreign poets? Although I don't read many foreign poems and essays, and I don't want to write bills for autumn poems and essays, if you look through the collected works of poets in Britain, Germany, France, Italy and other countries, or the philosophy of peace in poetry and essays in various countries, you can always see a lot of praises and lamentations about autumn. There is always a part about autumn in the long pastoral poems or four seasons poems of famous great poets. It is the best and the most interesting. It serves to show that sentient animals and interesting human beings can always cause deep, distant, severe and bleak feelings for autumn. Not only a poet, but also a prisoner in prison. In autumn, I think I will feel a kind of affection that I can't have; Autumn belongs to people, so there is no country, let alone the difference between race and class. In China, there is an idiom "autumn scholar" in the text, and there are very common readers such as Ouyang Zi's Autumn Sound and Su Dongpo's Red Cliff Fu, so we feel that the relationship between China literati and autumn is particularly deep. However, the strong smell of autumn, especially in China, can only be felt in the north.
Autumn in the south, of course, also has its unique places, such as the bright moon on the Twenty-four Bridges, the autumn tide in Qiantang River, the cool fog in Putuo Mountain, the residual lotus in Lizhi Bay and so on. , but the color is not strong and the aftertaste is not lasting. Compared with Qiu Lai in the north, it is like yellow rice wine and dry rice, porridge and steamed bread, bass and crabs, yellow dogs and camels.
Autumn, autumn in the north, if I can stay, I would like to fold two-thirds of my life for a third of it.
Our thoughts
This happened last summer. I live in an apartment in Beiping. I occupy a small room less than ten feet high, with a wet brick floor, paper walls and ceilings, two wooden lattice windows and ingenious paper shutters, which are rare in the south. Our thoughts
The window faces east. Summer in the north will come soon. At about five o'clock in the morning, the sun shone into my hut, and the room was full of terrible light. It didn't leave until half past eleven, which made people feel hot. There are still several vacant rooms in this apartment. Originally, I was free to choose, but I finally chose this room facing east. For a small reason, I went with joy and satisfaction. On the south wall of this room, there is a small round window about one foot in diameter. The window is round, but a hexagonal glass is embedded, and the lower left corner is broken, leaving a big hole where hands can be inserted and extended at will. Ivy grows outside the round window. When the sunlight penetrated into my room through its dense branches and leaves, there was a green shadow. I chose this room because I was glad of this green shadow. When the guys in the apartment took me to this room with my suitcase, I caught a glimpse of the green shadow and felt a kind of joy, so I decided without hesitation, which surprised everyone in the apartment. How precious green is! This is life, this is hope, this is comfort and this is happiness. I miss green, which makes my heart so anxious. I like to see the water is white, and I like to see the grass is green. I'm tired of gloomy city skies and yellow desert plains. I miss green, just like a dried-up fish waiting for rain! I am anxious to choose my mood, even if it is green, it is regarded as a treasure. When I settled down in this small room, I moved the small table under the round window to face the wall and the small window. Although the door was always open, no one bothered me, because I was lonely and strange in this ancient city. But I don't feel lonely. I forgot the sleepy journey and many unpleasant memories of the past. I looked at this small round hole and the green leaves talked to me. I know the silent language of nature just as it knows my language. I sat by the window happily. It took a month and two months, and I miss this piece of green. I began to understand the joy of crossing the desert to see the oasis, and I began to understand the joy of sailing adventurers to see the stems and leaves of flowers floating on the sea. People grow in nature, and green is the color of nature. I watch the growth of ivy outside the window every day. See how it stretches its soft tendrils and clings to the rope or dead branches that guide it; See how it unfolds its folded leaves, turning green and getting old. I carefully looked at its slender veins and buds, with the feeling of encouraging seedlings, hoping that it would grow fast and green. When it rains, I like its pattering sound and dancing. Suddenly a selfish idea touched me. I reached out from the broken window and brought two soft strips with rich mud into my room, telling them to stretch on my book case, which made me closer to Green. I use green to decorate my humble room and my depressed mood. I want to use green to compare lush love and happiness, and I want to use green to compare gloomy years. I imprisoned this green like a bird and asked it to sing silently for me. The green branches hang in front of my box. It is still stretching, still climbing, still growing in Xu Xia, and growing faster than outside. I seem to have found a kind of "happiness of life", which is more than any kind of happiness. A long time ago, I lived in a thatched cottage in the country. The ground is newly paved. The unwashed grass roots grew green buds under my bed, and mushrooms grew in the corner. I can't bear to cut them off. Later, a friend talked and laughed and helped me pull up these weeds. I feel sorry in my heart, but I blame him for much. But every morning when I get up to see this imprisoned "green friend", its tip always points out of the window. Even a thin leaf and a tendril are pointing in the original direction. What a tenacious plant! It doesn't understand my caress and my kindness to it. I am unhappy with this plant that always grows towards the sun, because it hurts my self-esteem. But I tied it and still let that weak branch hang in front of my case. It gradually lost its green color and became soft green and light yellow; The branches become thin and thin, like a sick child. I gradually can't forgive my mistakes and lock the plants under the sky into the darkroom; I gradually feel sorry for those damaged branches and leaves. Although I am angry at its stubbornness and lack of intimacy, I will not let it go. Magical ideas grow in my heart. I was going to go back to the south at the end of July. I counted my own return date and the day when this "green prisoner" was released from prison. When I left, it was time for it to be free again. The Lugouqiao Incident happened. I'm afraid my friends will push me back to the south. I have to change my plan; In mid-July, the old capital was busy and couldn't stay any longer. The train has been broken for several days, so we should pay attention to the news of driving every day. Finally arrived one morning. When I left, I released the prisoner who never gave in to the darkness. I put the thin yellow branches and leaves back to their original positions, and I extend my sincere wishes to them, wishing them lush. It's been a year since I left Beiping. I miss my round window and my green friends. One day, when I meet them, will they look strange?