Sunflowers have become the symbol of a world free of nuclear weapons. After Ukraine gave up its last nuclear warhead, the Defense Ministers of the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine met on a former Ukrainian missile base, June 4, 1996. They celebrated by scattering sunflower seeds and planting sunflowers. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry said, “Sunflowers instead of missiles in the soil would insure peace for future generations.”





前苏联人民热爱向日葵，并将它定为国花。现在俄罗斯把国花仍定为向日葵“更无柳絮因风起，惟有葵花向日倾”。向日葵，向往光明之花，合人带来美好希望之花，它全身是宝，把自己无私地奉献给人类。关于向日葵，历史上有一美妙传说。古代有一位农夫女儿名叫明姑，她憨厚老实，长得俊俏，却被后娘“女霸王”视为眼中钉，受到百般凌辱虐待。一次，因一件小事，顶撞了后娘一句，惹怒了后娘，使用皮鞭抽打她，可一下失手打到了前来劝解的亲生女儿身上，这时后娘又气又恨，夜里趁明姑娘熟睡之际挖掉了她的眼睛。明姑疼痛难忍，破门出逃，不久死去，死后在她坟上开着一盘鲜丽的黄花，终日面向阳光，它就是向日葵。表示明姑向往光明，厌恶黑暗之意，这传说激励人们痛恨暴、黑暗，追求光明。这向日葵便繁何至今。

The beautiful story of sunflower:

Once upon a time the earth was even more beautiful than it is today. The people of the earth lived close to nature and lived in peace. But one day a terrible thing happened. A strange spirit of greed entered the hearts of mankind. People began to be jealous of one another, and they were not satisfied with all the good things they already had. The nations wanted more and more of everything: more land, more water, more resources. They squeezed precious minerals from the earth to build terrible weapons to defend their nations from other, greedier nations. They killed one another. They polluted the air and the water with poisons. Nature began to die. This is called war. War is ugly. It destroys love and hope and peace.
很久以前地球要比现在漂亮很多，人们和大自然和平共处。但是一天一件可怕的事情发生了。一种奇怪的幽灵进入了人类的心脏。人们开始互相猜疑，并开始不满足于目前所拥有的美好的事物。国家想要拥有更多：更多的土地，更多的水资源，更多资源。他们从地球上压榨珍贵原料来打造可怕的武器来保护各自的国家.他们自相残杀.他们把毒物排放到空气中水中。大自然开始灭亡。这就是战争。战争是丑陋的它毁灭了爱，希望以及和平。



Then one day a magical thing occurred. The birds of the air, the animals of the land, and the creatures beneath the waters came to an agreement: if they were to survive, something would have to be done to stop these wars. Only through peace could their world survive.
一天一件不可思议的事情发生了。天上的飞鸟，地上奔跑的动物，以及水中的生命都聚到一起，它们得到了一个共识：如果要继续生存的话，必须采取措施使战争停止。只有在和平的环境下它们才能生存。
“We cannot speak the human language,” they declared, “and mankind can no longer understand ours. We must find among us a symbol of peace so brilliant that all who see it will stop and remember that peace and sharing is beautiful.”

“我们不会说人类的语言，”它们宣告，“人类也不再理解我们。我们必须找到能代表和平的使者让人类看到它就会停止战争并想起和平以及共享的美丽。”


“I am what you need,” said a golden sunflower. “I am tall and bright. My leaves are food for the animals, my yellow petals can turn plain cloth to gold, my seeds are many and are used for food by all living beings. Yet, the seeds I drop upon the ground can take root and I will grow again and again. I can be your symbol of peace.”
“我就是你们要找的，”一朵金色的向日葵说到。“我很高而且很明亮.我的叶子是动物的食物，我黄色的花瓣能将普通的衣物变成金色，我的种子非常的多并可以提供给所有的生物。而且我把种子撒在地上它可以很快的生根并继续生长。我就是和平的代表。”

All nature rejoiced, and it was decided that the birds would each take one sunflower seed and that they would fly over every nation and plant the seed in the earth as a gift. The seeds took root and grew, and the sunflowers multiplied. Wherever the sunflowers grew there seemed to be a special golden glow in the air. The people could not ignore such a magical sight.

所有的生物都欣喜了并决定由鸟儿一人衔一颗向日葵的种子，飞便所有的国家并洒下种子作为地球的礼物。这些种子生根并生长，向日葵不断的繁殖。只要有向日葵生长的地方就可以看到一片金色的天空。人们不可能忽视如此奇观。

Soon they began to understand the message of the sunflowers so they decided to destroy all of their terrible weapons and to put an end to the greed and to the fear of war. They chose the sunflower as a symbol of peace and new life for all the world to recognize and understand. A ceremony was celebrated by planting a whole field of sunflowers. Artists painted pictures of the sunflowers, writers wrote about them, and the people of the world were asked to plant more sunflower seeds as a symbol of remembrance.

不久人们就开始理解向日葵传达的信息。他们开始摧毁所有可怕的武器，停止了贪婪并害怕战争。人们选择向日葵做为和平的象征并开始了新的生活，对世界有了重新的认识和理解。

All nature rejoiced once more as the golden sunflowers stood tall with their faces turned eastward to the rising sun, then following the sun until it sets in the west. They gave their goodness to the world so that everyone who sees a sunflower will know that the golden light of peace is beautiful.

所有的生物再次欢舞起来，越来越多的向日葵屹立在地球上，面朝东部向着太阳升起的地方.并随着太阳向西落下。人们把善良给予世界，让每个人都能看到向日葵代表金色和平的美丽花朵。