Chapter 5 Prose: Moonlight in the Lotus Pond - Zhu Ziqing

I've been quite restless these days.Sitting in the yard to enjoy the shade tonight, I suddenly remembered that the lotus pond I walked by every day must look different under the light of the full moon.The moon was gradually rising, and the laughter of the children on the road outside the wall could no longer be heard; the wife was patting the son in the house, humming a sleeping song in a daze.I quietly put on my big shirt, closed the door and went out. Along the lotus pond is a winding small cinder road.This is a secluded road; few people walk during the day, and it is even more lonely at night.On all sides of the lotus pond, there are many lush and lush trees.On the side of the road, there are some willows and some trees whose names I don't know.On a moonless night, the road is gloomy and a bit scary.Tonight is very good, although the moonlight is still faint.

I was the only one on the road, walking with my hands behind my back.This piece of world seems to be mine; I also seem to have surpassed my usual self and entered another world.I love to be lively, but also to be calm; I love to live in groups, but also to be alone.Like tonight, under the boundless moon, you can think about anything, you can think about nothing, and you feel like a free person.What must be done and what must be said during the day can be ignored now.This is the beauty of being alone; I'll just enjoy the boundless lotus fragrance and moonlight. on the surface of the winding andtwisting lotus pond floated an endless field of leaves.the leaves lay high in the water, rising up like the skirts of a dancing girl.

Among the layers of leaves, white flowers are dotted here and there, some are coquettishly open, and some are holding their petals shyly; just like bright pearls, stars in the blue sky, or beauties just emerging from their bath. .a gentlebreeze floated by, bringing with it waves of a crisp fragrance like strains of a vague melody sent from distant towering buildings.At this time, the leaves and flowers trembled a little, which, like lightning, immediately passed to the other side of the lotus pond.the leaves themselves were densely crowdedtogether, pushing back and forth, and they seemed to be a cresting wave ofsolid green.

Under the leaves is the rippling water, which is covered, and some colors cannot be seen; but the leaves are even more beautiful. The moonlight is like flowing water, quietly pouring over the leaves and flowers.Thin blue mist floats in the lotus pond.The leaves and flowers seem to have been washed in milk; they are like a dream wrapped in a light gauze.Although itis a full moon, there is a film of pale clouds in the sky, so the light cannot be at itsbrightest; but I think this is all to the good---a profound sleep is indispensable, and short naps have a charm all their own.The moonlight shines through the trees, and the bushes on the high places cast jagged and mottled black shadows, but they seem to be painted on the lotus leaves.Despite the uneven moonlight cast in the pond, light and shadow was composed in an harmonious way, as a famous tune by a violin.

On all four sides of the lotus pond, the highs and lows are all trees, among which there are many willows.These trees surrounded a lotus pond heavily; there were only a few gaps beside the path, which seemed to be specially left for the moonlight.For example, the color of the tree is cloudy, and it looks like a cloud of smoke at first glance; but the beauty of the willow can be discerned in the smoke.On the top of the tree is a distant mountain, which is only a little careless.And between the trees appeared one or two street lamps, listless as the eyes of someone drowsy.At that time the most exciting things were the cicadas on the trees and the running in the water; but they were the most exciting, and I got nothing.

Suddenly I remembered the matter of picking lotus.Picking lotus is an old custom in the south of the Yangtze River. It seems to have existed very early, and it was prosperous in the Six Dynasties. We can roughly know it from poetry.The lotus pickers are young girls who go there in boats singing love songs.Needless to say, there are many lotus pickers, and there are also people who watch lotus pickers.It was a lively season, but also a romantic season.Emperor Liang Yuan said it well in "Cailian Fu": So the demon boy and girl said in their hearts when they were boating: [Yi Niao] headed back slowly, and passed on the feather cup;Er Qi has a slender waist and plain clothes, and delays his steps; summer begins and spring is over, leaves are tender and flowers are beginning, he smiles for fear of staining his clothes, and holds back his skirt for fear of capsized boats.

We can see the scene of playing at that time.This is really interesting, but unfortunately we are no longer blessed to enjoy it. Then I remembered the sentence in "Xizhou Song": Picking lotus in Nantang in autumn, the lotus flower is over the head; bowing the head to pick the lotus seeds, the lotus seeds are as clear as water. If there are lotus pickers tonight, the lotus here will be regarded as "extraordinary"; if there are only some shadows of running water, it will not do.This made me miss Jiangnan after all. ——Thinking like this, I suddenly raised my head, and realized that it was in front of my own door; I pushed the door gently and walked in, and there was no sound, my wife had been asleep for a long time.

July 1927 Tsinghua Garden, Beijing