作品原文

许地山 《荼靡》

我常得着男子送给我底东西，总没有当它们做宝贝看。我底朋友师松却不如此，因为她从不曾受过男子底赠送。
自鸣钟敲过四下以后，山上礼拜寺底聚会就完了。男男女女像出圈底羊，争要下到上坡觅食一般。那边有一个男学生跟着我们走，他底正名字我忘记了，我只记得人家都叫他做“宗之”。他手里拿着一枝荼蘼，且行且嗅。荼蘼本不是香花，他嗅着，不过是一种无聊举动便了。
“松姑娘，这枝荼蘼送给你。”他在我们后面嚷着。松姑娘回头看见他满脸堆着笑容递着那话，就速速伸手去接。她接着说：“很多谢，很多谢。”宗之只笑着点点头，随即从西边底山径转回家去。
“他给我这个，是什么意思？”
“你想他有什么意思，他就有什么意思。”我这样回答她。走步多元，我们也分途各自家去了。
她自下午到晚上不歇把弄那枝荼蘼。那花像有极大的魔力，不让她撒手一样。她要放下时，每觉得花儿对她说：“为什么离夺我？我不是从宗之手里递给你，交你照管底吗？”
呀，宗之底眼、鼻、口、齿、手、足、动作，没有一件不在花心跳跃着，没有一件不在她眼前底花枝显现出来！她心里说：“你这美男子，为甚缘故送我这花儿？”她又想起那天经坛上底讲章，就自己回答说：“因为他顾念他使女底卑微，从今而后，万代要称我为有福。”
这是她爱荼蘼花，还是宗之爱她呢？我也说不清，只记得有一天我和宗之正坐在榕树根谈话底时候，他家底人跑来对他说：“松姑娘吃了一朵什么花，说是你给她底，现在病了。她家底人要找你去问话啊。”
他吓了一跳，也摸不着头脑，只说：“我那时节给她东西吃？这真是……！”
我说：“你细想一想。”他怎么也想不起来。我才提醒他说：“你前个月在斜道上不是给了她一朵荼蘼吗？”
“对呀，可不是给了她一朵荼蘼！可是我哪里教她吃了呢？”
“为什么你单给她，不给别人？”我这样问。
他很直接地说：“我并没有什么意思，不过随手摘下，随手送给别人就是了。我平素送了许多东西给人，也没有什么事；怎么一朵小小的荼蘼就可使她着魔了？”
他还坐在那里沉吟，我便促他说：“你还能在这里坐着吗？不管她是误会，你是有意，你既然给了她，现在就得去看她一看才是。”
“我哪有什么意思？”
我说：“你且去看看罢。蚌蛤何尝立志要生珠子呢？也不过是外间的沙粒偶然渗入它底壳里，它就不得不用尽功夫分泌些黏液把那小沙裹起来罢了。你虽无心，可是你底花一到她手里，管保她不因花而爱起你来吗？你敢保她不把那花当作你所赐给爱底标志，就纳入她底怀中，用心里无限情思把它围绕得非常严密吗？也许她本无心，但因你那美意德沙无意中掉在她爱底贝壳里，使她不得不如此。不用踌躇了，且去看看罢。”
宗之这才站起来，皱一皱他那副冷静底脸庞，跟着来人从林菁底深处走出去了。

作品译文

A Tumi Flower

From time to time I would receive something from my fellow boy students but I did not attach much sentimental value to them. It was not the case, however, with my friend Shi Song who had never been approached by boys with any present at all.
When the chime clock struck four, the congregation held in the Christian church on the hill was over. Boys and girls were swarming out, like sheep released from their pen scrambling for the first bite of grass on the hillside. A boy student was walking behind us. His full name slipped my mind and I only remembered that people called him Zongzhi. He had a tumi flower in his hand, sniffing at it as he walked along. As tumi flowers have no scent, he did it out of habit, I guessed.
"Miss Song, let me give you this flower," he said aloud, coming up from behind. Miss Song turned and Zongzhi, all smiles, was reaching out the flower to her. She hastened to take it and said: "Many thanks, many thanks." Zongzhi nodded with a smile and then, veering to the path on the west hillside, was off on his way home.
"What does he mean, giving me this flower?"
"He means what you think he means," I replied. And soon we parted; she went her way home and I went mine.
For the rest of the afternoon and the whole of that evening she kept fiddling with the flower as if it had some magic power to cling to her hands. Each time she was about to put it down she seemed to hear the flower murmuring: "Why are you letting go of me? Don't you know when Zongzhi left me in your hands he meant for you to take care of me?"
She was excited with the illusion that its stamens began to vibrate with Zongzhi's eyes, lips, teeth, hands, feet and every gesture, dancing on the petals of the flower. And then she said in her heart: "You the Adonis, what did you give me this flower for?" Reflecting on the sermon delivered in the church that afternoon she answered for herself: "For he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed."
Did she love the flower, or did Zongzhi love her? I could not figure out, but I remembered that one day Zongzhi and I were chatting under a banyan tree when someone of his family came running up and said to him: "Miss Song has eaten some flower and she says she had it from you and she is now feeling unwell. Her family want to have a word with you."
Zongzhi was bewildered with a spasm of shock. He did not know what to say except "When did I ever give her anything to eat? How incredible...!"
I said: "Think carefully." When I saw that he failed to have recalled anything, I brought it up to remind him: "About two months ago, along the path on the hillside you gave her a tumi flower. Remember?"
"Oh, yes! I did. But I did not tell her to eat it, did I?"
"But why did you give it to her in particular, not anyone else?" I asked.
He said frankly: "But I did not mean anything. I just picked it from the tree as I passed it and then gave it to her, that' s all. I have given many things to others and nothing has happened. Why should she have become infatuated with such a tiny flower?"
He was still sitting there, upset. I urged him to get up and go: "How can you still hang around here like this? Since you gave the flower to her, you should go and see her right away, either she misunderstood you, or you intended it."
"I did not intend it at all."
"Just go and see how things are with her. The oyster has no intention to cultivate pearls, has it? But when a sand grain happens to end up in its shells, it has to secrete mucus to wrap it up. True, you did not mean it, but don't you think it's probable that she fell in love with you the moment you put the flower into her hands? Who can doubt that she accepted the flower as a symbol of love from you and then began to cherish it with all her feelings from the bottom of her heart? She might not be expecting it, but when your well-intentioned 'sand' dropped in her 'shells of love', she had to act this way. Don't hesitate any more. Get going."
Zongzhi got up and, with a fleeting frown on his well-composed face, went with the one from his family out of the exuberance of the trees.