《白果树》（周建人） ~ 英语学习笔记-中英双语赏析

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白果树

Ginkgo Tree

文/周建人

译/张梦井、杜耀文

上海真是热闹的地方，也许特别在热天的时候，牌声。留声机或无线电的声音，有时更有爆仗声，往往闹得人不能睡觉。这实在是很窘的。有时候，譬如灯下写了点东西，看看时候已经十一点钟了，赶紧睡下，想望早点睡熟，以便明天起来好做事情。偏偏这边邻居的牌声还没有停止，那边又开起留声机来了。逢年过节还要放爆仗，这自然更其挡不住。而且常常这等声音还没有闹了，卖馄饨的又来了。广东馄饨担是敲竹板的，发出必必剥剥尖脆的声音，本地馄饨担是敲竹筒的，发出沉重的钝声。我的故乡也有这样的馄饨担，但是用短木棒敲在竹筒上，声音比较的低些，上海的馄饨担往往用短铁棒来敲，声音也就特别响亮了。有时候刚把思想制止住，正要睡去，接连的被外面闯进来的声浪数次闹醒之后，便会许多时期睡不着。第二天因为睡眠不足，身体觉得不清爽，就不能好好的做事情了。

Shanghai is indeed a rustling place, perhaps especially in the hot days. All the noises of cards playing, gramophone, wireless radio and sometimes even noise of crackers, often make people unable to sleep. This is indeed very hard for me. For example, sometimes when I am writing under a lamp, seeing it is already eleven at night, I would hurry to sleep so as to get up earlier the next morning to do something useful. But it happens that the noise of my neighbour’s card playing has not yet stopped when dumpling sellers come again. In Guangdong, dumpling soup sellers used to knock bamboo clappers, producing a sharp cracking noise. But here the dumpling sellers knock bamboo pipes, producing a heavy, dull noise. In my home village there are also such dumpling soup peddlers, but they knock bamboo pipes with a short wooden stick, resulting in a low noise. In Shanghai the dumpling soup peddlers often knock with short iron stick, thus producing an exceedingly loud noise. And sometimes when you have just restrained your thinking and are going to sleep, you are awakened several times by the clamour outside repeatedly. Thus you will remain sleepless for quite a long time. And as you don’t sleep well the previous night, you feel not clear in your mind on the next day and accordingly you won’t be able to work well.

近几天来，这等闹人睡眠的声音没有减少，却加添了卖热白果的声音了。白果担子挑来歇下，便发出镬子里炒白果的索朗朗的声音来，卖白果的人一面口中唱道：“糯糯热白果，香又香来糯又糯，白果好像鹅蛋大，一个铜板买三颗！”

These few days, this sleep-bothering noise not only remains the same, but the noise of hot-ginkgo sellers adds in. When ginkgo peddlers come to rest here, as the fried ginkgo in the pot produces a rustling noise, they would chant: “Delicious hot ginkgoes, delicious and glutinous! They are of goose-egg size. A copper coin can buythree!”

但是我觉得白果担倒并不怎样吵闹的。因为叫唱的声音并不十分高，而且挑来得早，回去也早，有时候倒觉得叫卖声中带给我们秋天来了的消息，使人知道白果卖了之后，将有檀香橄榄买。荷花不开了，燕子要回到马来、印度等地方去了。

However, in my opinion, the ginkgo peddlers are not so clamorous, for their chantings are not loud and they come and go earlier too. Sometimes I feel that in their chanting we can know that autumn is coming and that after ginkgoes are sold, fragrant Chinese olive will be on the market. Then the lotus flowers are in blossom and swallows have gone to Malaysia, India and elsewhere.

上海秋天虽然各处卖热白果，但是白果树却很少见的。我的故乡有很大的白果树。它又称银杏，有些讲花木的书上又叫它公孙树，意思是说它的成长很慢，阿公种植的白果树，须到孙子手里才开花结子。日本的植物学书上便常用这名称的。它的学名是Ginkgo biloba，是植物界中的老古董。它的系统是从中生代侏罗纪传来，到了现在，只剩了它一种了。中国是它的家乡。普遍只见它种在庙宇寺院里，有些植物学者疑心现在已没有自生的白果树了，米耶尔（Meyer）虽说浙江山中还有自生的，但是有些人却不相信他的话。

Although in autumn hot ginkgoes are sold everywhere in Shanghai, ginkgo trees are rare. In my home village, there grow very big ginkgo trees. It is also called “Silver Apricot”. In some books of plants and flowers, it is called “Gongsun Tree”, meaning it grows very slowly, for the tree planted by the grandfather can only blossom and bear fruits till his grandson times. In Japanese botany books this name is often used. Its system originated from the Jurassic Period in the Mesozoic Era. Up to now, it is the only species that survives. Its home is China. Generally, it is seen planted in temples and monasteries and some botanists doubt about the existence of natural ginkgo trees. Although Meyer said there were natural ginkgo trees in the mountains of Zhejiang Province, some people don’t believe in what he said.

植物学者虽觉得白果树已渐将衰亡，但是人工种植的却还很多。它很容易种，只要把种子种在泥土里，大约五十天后芽便出来了。它幼时树形像座塔，后来枝条散开，成了伞状的大树。据说最大的白果树能长高到九丈以上，但普遍没有这么大。它的叶子有长柄，叶身很像内地扇炉子用的“火扇”。到了秋天，变成黄颜色，是很好看的。它是落叶树，冬天只剩下枝干。

Though botanists think that ginkgo trees are on the verge of extinction, there are still a lot of artificial propagation ones. It is easy to grow. Once seeds are spread in the mud, they will sprout in about fifty days. Its young trees are shaped like a tower, and later their branches begin to spread, growing into a big tree, like an umbrella. It is said that the tallest ginkgo tree can grow over nine zhang in height; however, ordinary one can not grow so high. Its leaves have long stalks and the leaf itself is quite similar to the “air fan” used to fan a stove in our inland area. When autumn comes, it changes yellow, looking very nice. Being a deciduous tree, in winter it has nothing but trunks and branches.

白果树是雌雄异株的，大约四月间开花。花极简单，没有花萼、花瓣这些东西。雄花只在一条柄上着生些雄蕊，每个雄蕊只生两个花粉囊。雌花只在每条长柄上着生两个裸出的胚珠。因为它的花太不明显了，一般人从不曾看见过，因此便造下一个靠不住的传说，说白果树的花是“大年夜”（阴历除夕）后半夜开的，而且开的时间又极短，只闪三闪，就不见了。这传说先前曾叫一个长塘乡人上过一次当。他是一个求知心很切的人，大年夜的后半夜里，跑到近地的一株白果树下等候它开花，足足等了半夜，不见一点动静，这才使他对于那传说发生了疑惑。

Ginkgo trees are dioecian. They begin to blossom around April. Their flowers are very simple with no such things as calyx and petals. The male flower only grows some stamens on a stalk and every stamen has only two pollen tubes. And the female flower has only two bare ovules on every long stalk. As its flowers are quite indistinct, people usually neglect them. Thus people made up an unreliable legend, saying that the flowers of ginkgo trees are blossoming in the small hours of the lunar New Year’s Eve, besides, its time of blossoming is very brief, flashing only three times then vanishing. A man in Changtang District was once taken in by this legend. Being so keen on learning, at mid-night of the New Year’s Eve he rushed under a ginkgo tree nearby to wait for its blossom. He waited for fully half a night with no result. It was at this time that he began to doubt about the truthfulness of the legend.

但白果树的确是开花的，不过不在冬未，却在春未生叶的时候。胚珠长大起来后，变成一个种子，形状很像杏子，颜色也是黄的，但皮肤很光滑。除去外面的薄皮和肉质，里面包着一层白色坚硬的薄壳，这便是普通所卖的白果，长足的白果，连外面的肉大约只有三生的密达大，除去肉质，那核自然更小了，上海担上的白果，似乎特别小，然而卖白果的人偏说“好像鹅蛋大”。未免太夸张，可是比之于有些广告，却要算是老实的了。

However, ginkgo trees do blossom, not in late winter but in late spring when they begin to grow leaves. When its ovule grows big, it becomes a seed, which looks like a smooth-skinned yellow apricot. By removing the thin skin and the meat, a layer of hard, white shell is exposed. This is the commonly-sold ginkgo. The fully grown ginkgo is about the size of a mida① of a three-year-old tree including its outside meat. Removing its meat, you can see the core is naturally quite small. The ginkgo of Shanghai peddlers seem, quite small. However, ginkgo sellers do say “It’s the size of goose-egg”. It’s a bit too exaggerated. But as compared with some advertisements, they are fairly honest.

①mida: a kind of sweet fruit.

我个人呢，虽不爱吃白果，但很爱白果树。它的木材虽不甚坚硬，然而纹理细密、色白微黄、略带丝光，漆上中国的黄漆，颜色极光亮。你只要去问木工，他会告诉你用“银杏板”做书箱之类是很好的。还有，它的叶子上从不见会生虫，因此我想到做“马路树”一定很适宜的。北平的路旁常种着槐树和洋槐，叶上常生一种青色的幼虫，仿佛名叫槐蚕，它有时候吐出丝来，挂在半空里，或者掉在路旁，行人如不当心，就会碰在面孔上，或者脚下踏成虫酱。上海马路旁种的多是筱悬木，它的掌状的大叶还好看，只是会生一种毛刺虫——雀瓮蛾的幼虫——身上生着刺，如果刺在赤膊的身子上，是很疼痛的。白果树上不生这等虫，叶子又好看。它也是落叶树，夏季生叶很密，可以遮住太阳，冬季叶子脱落了，不致阻碍阳光，和筱悬木等一样。

As to myself, although I don’t like eating ginkgo, I am fond of ginkgo trees very much. Its wood is not so hard but with very fine veins. The colour is of light yellow, shining with a little light. Painted with Chinese yellow paint, it is very brilliant. If asked, the carpenter will tell you that the bookcase made of “ginkgo plate” is rather excellent. Besides, its leaves never grow insects. Thus I think it must be a very suitable “Street Tree”. In Beijing the streets are often flanked with Chinese scholartrees or foreign scholartrees. The leaves often grow with a green-coloured larvae, which may called silk worms of the Chinese scholartrees. Sometimes after spinning silks, they would suspend in the air or fall on the roadside. A careless step, the pedestrians would touch them in the face or smash them underfoot. In Shanghai the streets are mostly flanked with small suspending trees. Their palm-size leaves look fine. It is a pity that it grows a kind of burry insects, the larvae of a kind of moth with needles all over its body. If they sting on your naked arm, it’s rather painful. On the ginkgo tree insects like this do not exist and, what is more, the leaves are quite good-looking. It is also a deciduous tree. In summer the rich leaves can cut off the sunlight and in winter when all the leaves are fallen off. Just like the slender suspending tree, it can’t block out the sunlight.

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