暖国的雨,向来没有变过冰冷的坚硬的灿烂的雪花。博识的人们觉得他单调,他自己也以为不幸否耶?江南的雪,可是滋润美艳之至了;那是还在隐约着的青春的消息,是极壮健的处子的皮肤。
雪野中有血红的宝珠山茶,白中隐青的单瓣梅花,深黄的磬口的蜡梅花;雪下面还有冷绿的杂草。胡蝶确乎没有;蜜蜂是否来采山茶花和梅花的蜜,我可记不真切了。但我的眼前仿佛看见冬花开在雪野中,有许多蜜蜂们忙碌地飞着,也听得他们嗡嗡地闹着。
孩子们呵着冻得通红,像紫芽姜一般的小手,七八个一齐来塑雪罗汉。因为不成功,谁的父亲也来帮忙了。罗汉就塑得比孩子们高得多,虽然不过是上小下大的一堆,终于分不清是壶卢还是罗汉;然而很洁白,很明艳,以自身的滋润相粘结,整个地闪闪地生光。孩子们用龙眼核给他做眼珠,又从谁的母亲的脂粉奁中偷得胭脂来涂在嘴唇上。这回确是一个大阿罗汉了。他也就目光灼灼地嘴唇通红地坐在雪地里。
第二天还有几个孩子来访问他;对了他拍手,点头,嘻笑。但他终于独自坐着了。晴天又来消释他的皮肤,寒夜又使他结一层冰,化作不透明的水晶模样;连续的晴天又使他成为不知道算什么,而嘴上的胭脂也褪尽了。
但是,朔方的雪花在纷飞之后,却永远如粉,如沙,他们决不粘连,撒在屋上,地上,枯草上,就是这样。屋上的雪是早已就有消化了的,因为屋里居人的火的温热。别的,在晴天之下,旋风忽来,便蓬勃地奋飞,在日光中灿灿地生光,如包藏火焰的大雾,旋转而且升腾,弥漫太空;使太空旋转而且升腾地闪烁。
在无边的旷野上,在凛冽的天宇下,闪闪地旋转升腾着的是雨的精魂……
是的,那是孤独的雪,是死掉的雨,是雨的精魂。
Snow
Tropicalrain has never had a chance to turn
into ice-cold, solid, and sparkling
snowflakes. Eruditepeople
consider this fact boring, and the rain itself takes this as a
misfortune. In contrast, southern snow is
the pinnacleof
sleekness and beauty. It is simply a heraldof
emerging adolescenceand the
skin of the most vigorous and healthy
virgin.
In
the snowy fields, there
are scarlet
Treasure Pearl camellias,white-colored
and blue-green-tinged single-lobe
plum flowers, and deep
yellow AlmsBowl
winter sweets. Underneath the snow are pale green weeds. There are indeed no
butterflies, nor do I remember if bees have come to gather honey
from the camelliasor
plum flowers, but I seem to have seen winter flowers blooming
in the snow-covered
fields, on which many bees are busy flying around, and I seem to
have heard their
buzzing clamor.
A
group of children, seven or eight in total, have gathered to make a
snow Arhat. Occasionally,they
puff warm breaths on their little, frozen hands, red and purple
like ginger sprouts. Because they have failed to make the Arhat
right, someone’s dad has come to help. As a result, the snow Arhat
now looks much taller than the figure the kids have made
previously. Although it is nothing but a tapering pile of snow and
looks as much like a gourd as it does an Arhat it appears, on the
other hand, very white and eye-catching as a big shiny mess, bound
together with the power of its own gluey moistness. The kids use
longans for its eyeballs and put on its lips some rouge snitched
from a make-up case of someone’s mother. Now it does look like a
big Arhat, and it sits there on the snowy ground with its eyes
glittering and its lips glowing.
Although
a few children have come to visit it the following day and give it
a round of applause,a
few nods, and a chorus of
laughter, in the end,
it has to sit there alone. A sunny day
has scrapedoff
its skin, and chilly night has covered it in a layer of
ice, thus turning it
into an opaquecrystal,
and several sunny days in a row have taken the rouge off its lips
and made it completely
unrecognizable.
On
the contrary, like permanent powder or sand,
northern snowflakes,
after they fall, remain non-sticky solids. When they
are spread onto the
roofs, onto the ground, or onto the withered
grass, they remain the
same shapes as before. Of course, the snow on
the roof has long
since melted in the warmth of the fires lit by
the residents of the
houses, but in other places, the snow flies vigorously in the
sudden whirling wind and
shines brilliantlyin
the sunlight. It whirls up and fills the sky like a heavy fog with
flame wrapped in it. Thus, it makes the sky flash in a spinning and
soaring manner.
In
the endless open fields and
under the piercinglycold
firmament, what is spinning and soaring is the spirit and soul of
the rain…
Yes, that
is the solitary snow,
or the rain in an afterlife the spirit and soul of the
rain.