Chapter 36 Salina at dusk

On the road in California, I passed a small town and was immediately fascinated by the city's beautiful appearance. The buildings in the city are all two-story small buildings, the buildings are gray, and it looks very quiet when surrounded by mountains and rivers. People walking on the streets are not in a hurry like ordinary cities in the United States. Doubt has entered nineteenth-century Europe. Some clothing stores and department stores also remind me of places in my hometown like Lukang or Tamsui, especially the brick walkways in the store corridors, which are clean and refreshing, making people walking unconsciously slow down and look at the scenery on both sides .

I don't know the name of that city, but I only know that it is like many elegant small towns, the kind you like at a glance.Finally, I asked the clerk the name of the city in a small candle shop, and she smiled and said, "It's Salinas!" "Sa Linna! What a beautiful name, I seem to have read this name in which book?" I said. "Ah! It's Steinbeck's book." She smiled even more happily: "Steinbeck is the most famous novelist of our Serena, and he is also the sixth American writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature." The words of that young and well-meaning American girl seemed to strike a match and ignite the light in my heart. When I was as young as her (maybe only nineteen years old), I once loved Steinbeck so passionately, but I forgot I forgot his hometown, and forgot that his novels were all set in his hometown, and I was not awakened until I was in this strange place; I actually broke into Steinbeck's hometown without any preparation.Probably because I suddenly fell into silent thoughts, the girl said anxiously, "Have you ever heard of Steinbeck?" Between", "East of Eden", these great works, have been deeply moved!"

Then we talked about Steinbeck unknowingly. Through this American writer who has passed away for 14 years, we talked about literature. Literature at this time is wonderful, it crosses time, space, and nationality, anywhere In a certain person, we have read the same works and experienced the spiritual world of the same writer. The girl took the trouble to speak English very slowly to explain the influence of Steinbeck on her and the honor he brought to her hometown.She said that Steinbeck had worked as a farm and ranch hand not far outside the city, had worked as a road builder on the road crew, and worked a lot of different odd jobs, so he had a deep understanding of the lower classes.The most wonderful thing is that Steinbeck studied at Stanford University for five years without getting a degree. As a result, there are many Stanford students who specialize in his novels... The girl told me a brief story about Steinbeck in a few minutes Life, I think in the town of Salina, maybe any townsman can give me a Steinbeck speech, literature has a great power in this place, people like Salina, they may forget the previous sheriff Or the name of a congressman, may forget the name of the previous president, but they will not forget Steinbeck, who perpetuated the name of his hometown in this world.

"You are a Chinese, why do you like Steinbeck?" the girl asked me. I recalled buying books at the bookstall when I was a teenager, and I was deeply puzzled when I saw it, but for some reason, Steinbeck’s Chinese translation gave me the feeling of a tank. I bought that book and read it all the way.The girl laughed out loud after hearing what I said. In Salina, because of Steinbeck's description in the past, I completely dispelled my feeling of being strange in a different place.This town, once inhabited by many Irish immigrants, has not yet been fully Americanized after a century, and the quiet and peaceful atmosphere of its past can be felt almost in the air.The afternoon sun moves slowly, and the gentle breeze blows, even the pedestrians on the road are elegant and courteous.I think there is a reason for Steinbeck's last novel "East of Eden", which is set in his hometown, to call Sarina "Eden".

Later, at the corner of the street, I found a small and cozy coffee house, which was built with red bricks, and the whole blue sky could be seen from the floor-to-ceiling windows. Maybe Steinbeck once sat in this coffee house, because it looked Yes there is some history.Drinking coffee, I slowly remembered the plot of "East of Eden". In this epic book, Steinbeck once created a thoughtful and respectable Chinese "A Li", the image of A Li, and His observations of the world and his language are like a philosopher, and he has become immortal through time and space. "A Li" is the most respectable and lovable Chinese in American novels I have read. For this alone, Steinbeck makes me respect.I sat in the coffee house until dusk, and the beautiful sunset light illuminated the whole of Salina. What was Salina's appearance in Steinbeck's era?

I want to read another passage of his description: The wide and flat cultivated land in the valley is covered with a layer of fertile soil. As long as there is enough rain in winter, plants and flowers can grow.In rainy years, spring flowers are unbelievably beautiful.The whole valley floor, including the foothills, is covered with lupine flowers and poppies.A woman once told me that colored flowers would look brighter if white flowers were placed among them.Every blue lupine flower is bordered with white, so that the whole field of lupine flowers is bluer than you can imagine.Mixed in between are the colorful California poppies.These flowers are also dazzling in color - not orange, not golden, if pure gold can be dissolved into a paste, then the golden cream may be the color of these poppies...

Today's Salina no longer has so many blue, white, and golden flowers, but it doesn't matter. Steinbeck's novels are more colorful than these flowers themselves, just like the evening glow shining on Salina, I have never experienced literature so deeply in the writer's birthplace like that time. — May 20, 1982