In the middle of the summer, in Fuzhou, I met the hydrangea that I have been looking for since 2008.
The weather in Fuzhou in early summer is very changeable, today I still go out in winter clothes, but tomorrow the climate is as hot as fire, only suitable for wearing a vest. The heat brings people with panic and don't know how to dress to cope with this cool summer season. Unexpectedly, only two days later, it turned into a clear sky when I went out, and when I walked to the intersection, it became a downpour. Ask the locals, it turns out that this period is the maturity period of Jiangnan plums, and there is a popular proverb in the south that "the rain hits the yellow plum head, and there is no sun head for the forty-fifth day", which means that the yellow plum season will rain at the beginning, and the continuous rain will make people unable to see the face of the sun for a month and a half.
"In the rainy season, the family rains, and the spring grass pond is full of frogs", the poetry is extremely beautiful, it feels "wet" and picturesque, but the hot summer atmosphere in real life is fickle. All day long, slimy, high humidity and high temperature, sweat like rain under the sweltering heat, called the original out of the walk, can't help but change direction together, into the air-conditioned shopping plaza.
Friend R of Fuzhou, who had made an appointment to dine after a walk, took me up to the 10th floor at a slow pace. It was too early, but it was also because there was a flower cluster in front of me. Near a corner of the viewing glass, the food and beverage square is filled with blooming dark blue, purple, pink, white, emerald green, red ball ball flowers, bright and colorful, and smiling faces are opening up to welcome guests. A cluster of large ball flowers, creating a "Xuanhe" momentum, attracted both of us to open their mouths and praise "so beautiful!" ”
I express my praise with action, stop and open my eyes to see the moist, full, and vibrant flowers. R repeated: "Really, really beautiful!" ”
She did not deliberately go out yesterday to buy flowers, but passed by, suddenly looked up, suddenly fell in love, and ended up holding a flower home. A flower like this, made up of hundreds of delicate and delicate flowers that form a huge ball of flowers, can become a bouquet of flowers! I want to buy it too! It's a pity not to take it away. As I sighed, she said, "I still don't know the name of the flower!" "The appearance of this flower, I look very much like a hydrangea flower. It is very similar because the hydrangeas I know are only dark blue and light purple, and they are also gorgeous, but the colors are not as rich and colorful as in front of me.
Can't help but search online, it turns out that this is called hydrangea. "Ah!" I covered my mouth with my hand so that the sound of surprise would not come out. I once read a Japanese translated novel "Hydrangea Diary", and while reading it, I wondered, what does Hydrangea look like? At that time, the Internet was not yet prevalent today, and not knowing who to ask became a mystery. Carrying this mystery, looking around for more than ten years, I finally saw the colorful and magnificent flowers next to it, with the names of the flowers written "Blue Edge Hydrangeas", "Red Riding Hood", "Flamboante", "Otaxa", "Snowball", "Pink Lady", "European Pods", "Sapphire", "Sun Temple", "Miss Yarn Weaving", "Sumida Hanabi"... The names are dazzling, as beautiful as flowers.
The original name of the hydrangea in ancient Japanese is "Jizhen Blue", which combines the meaning of true blue. Many Haiku masters in Japan have left famous sentences for hydrangeas, such as Kobayashi Kazucha's "Although the hydrangea flowers are changeable, in the end they wither in a color, and this beauty is really illusory and impermanent" (the original sentence is japanese, Chinese translated to take its meaning), which is really sad to read. Isn't it life that is illusory and impermanent? Is it beautiful so illusory, or is it illusory and impermanent because beautiful?
There is also "the trees are silent, helpless hydrangea flowers change color, confused in the heart" in the "Manyo Collection". Colorful flowers captivate people's eyes, and people's hearts themselves are confused, what does it have to do with flowers?
According to us, the Japanese call it "Hydrangea", but this name is Chinese.
This man was the famous Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi. It is said that in Hangzhou Lingyin Temple, "strange flowers are produced after the roots of the rock top cliffs, fragrant and purple, fragrant and lovely, and no one knows its name." The monks of Zhaoxian Temple took it and planted it. Bai Juyi loved it so much that he left a poem for the flowers: "When it is planted on the altar of the immortals, it will be transplanted to the Fan family sooner or later." Although people in the human world do not know, with the king's name as hydrangea. ”
After borrowing it from the Japanese, it became one of the favorite flowers of the nation. The color of the hydrangea varies differently from the alkalinity and ornamental time of the planting soil, so it is also called "seven variations". The book says that the flower language of the hydrangea is "flower heart, fickleness and change of mind". There is also a haiku written by a poet of the Meiji period, "Hydrangea, yesterday's truth, today's lies, do you believe it?" ”
After hearing the Hydrangea Flower Language, I better understood why the book was called "Hydrangea Diary". Reading the novel is probably around 2008, the writer is The Japanese Junichi Watanabe, the content describes the love and life of a middle-aged couple, the real expression is the complexity and multi-faceted nature of human nature, as well as the weaknesses of human nature and the fickleness of the human heart.
The male protagonist and his wife in the novel are like all middle-aged couples, having two children after fifteen years of marriage, love is consumed and worn out in reality, the feelings of two people deteriorate and pass in boring days, and indifference becomes the norm of life. I lived in the same room, but I slept in separate rooms for ten years. One day, the male protagonist stumbled upon his wife's bed, and the cover of the diary was a huge hydrangea flower. Unable to suppress his curiosity, he panicked after peeking into the diary, because the diary recorded his betrayal and infidelity. It turned out that his wife had long known that he was having an affair, but she never said it, and only confided in her diary.
The peaceful life was suddenly disrupted.
At this time, the reader of the novel and the male protagonist of the novel become voyeurs, following the male protagonist while learning about his wife's heart. There is no love, but there is concern for the heart, is that right? Or is the male protagonist just caring about himself? As a reader, I begin to think about what love really is all about. When the male protagonist kept tracking down his wife's diary to record traces of his infidelity, there was a sudden turn, and in his wife's beautiful handwriting, word by word, she began to associate with a professor who was in college...
The wife, who was originally passive in the novel, suddenly turned into an active role, as a female reader, I am really happy to read this. When we think that the male protagonist has betrayed his wife, and is indignant and sorry for his wife, but the wife does not miss the opportunity to betray her husband, should female readers be proud?
Will betraying each other make love fair? And is there such a thing as fairness in love?
As a well-known writer, Junichi Watanabe wrote a story that surprised everyone. My wife's last diary reads: "In the future, I will never write again, put everything in my heart to live, I don't know how long I can put it on, but one thing is certain, that is, the husband who comes to peek at my diary from time to time can finally return to his own daily life." "According to this, the male protagonist is fooled by his wife? Did the wife cheat? Did she already know that the male protagonist was peeking at the diary, and deliberately created a story of red apricots out of the wall to stimulate him and make him jealous? Or is she really having an affair with the male protagonist?
This is a novel with no ending, and the ending is left to the reader to decide. Maybe you have to think deeply about the title of the book, "Hydrangea". And it wasn't until 10 years later that I saw the diversity of hydrangeas. Also known as the "Endless Summer" of the hydrangea, in the hot summer continues to unfold the dreamy pink blue purple, choose the hydrangea in the sweltering and humid climate is willing to bloom, with a cool blue as the base, blooming out of the summer coolness, so that the people who see the flowers are also drunk. Its beauty and vividness are to comfort people who have become impetuous by high temperatures and humidity.
The hydrangea in front of me was silent, and the vulture bloomed noisily.
(This article edits Zhu Rui)
Column Editor-in-Chief: Wu Bin Text Editor: Zhu Rui Image Editor: Zi Xi