散文佳作108篇 第13期:種梨 Planting a Pear Tree

Planting a Pear Tree

有鄉(xiāng)人貨梨于市，頗甘芳，價騰貴。有道士破巾絮衣，丐于車前。鄉(xiāng)人咄之，亦不去;鄉(xiāng)人怒，加以叱罵。道士曰：“一車數(shù)百顆，老袖止丐其一，于居士亦無大損，何怒為?”觀者勸置劣者一枚令去，鄉(xiāng)人執(zhí)不肯。肆中傭保者，見喋聒聯(lián)不堪，遂出錢市一枚，付道士。道士拜謝，謂眾日：“出家人不解吝惜。我有佳梨、請出供客。”或曰：“既有之，何不自食?”曰：“我特需此核作種。”于是掬梨大啖。且盡，把核于手，解肩上鐫，坎地深數(shù)寸，納之而覆以土。向市人索湯沃灌。好事者于臨路店索得沸沈，道士接浸坎處。萬目攢視，見有勾萌出，漸大;俄成樹，枝葉扶蘇;倏而花，倏而實，碩大芳馥，累累滿樹。道七乃即樹頭摘賜觀者，頃刻向盡。已，乃以鐫伐樹，丁丁良久，方斷;帶葉荷肩頭，從容徐步而去。

A villager took his pears to the market to sell. His pears were juicy and sweet, but the price washigh. A Taoist priest, in an old cap and worn cotton robe, came up to his cart and begged for apear. The villager told him to go away but he would not. The villager got angry and began touse strong words at him. The Taoist priest said, "You've got a cartful of pears which must be inthe hundred, but I am asking for only one of them and one pear is not much of a loss to you.Why are you getting so angry shout it?" The onlookers said, "Give him a bad one and let himgo." A waiter in the tavern, hearing the noisy bickering in the street, came anti bought a pearfor the priest. The priest thanked him and said to the crowd, "As a Taoist priest I am not thatsparing. I've got first-class pears and I'd like to share them with you." Someone in the crowdsaid, "Why not eat your own pears then, since you've got some?"

"But I need the core of it as seed," the priest said and, holding up the pear with his hands,began to eat. When he ate up the pear, he held its core in one hand and, with the other, hetook off' a small shovel from his back. He began to dig in the ground a hole two or three inchesdeep, put the core in it and then covered it with earth. Lie asked if anyone in the crowd couldfind some hot water for him. One of them, an obliging person, fetched some boiling water froma strop by the street. The priest took it over and poured it where the core of the pear wasburied.

While tine people around watched, the core sprouted and grew and, in a moment, became atree with exuberant foliage and, in another couple of seconds, it began to blossom and bearpears. The pears were big, emitting sweet fragrance and the tree was heavy with them. Thepriest picked them and gave them to the people around and soon there were no more. Thenthe priest began to cut the tree and he worked at it for a long while before he felled it. He putthe tree, leaves and all, on his shoulder and walked off at a leisurely pace.

初，道士作法時，鄉(xiāng)人亦雜立眾中，引領(lǐng)注目，竟忘其業(yè)。道士既去，始顧車中，則梨已空矣。方悟適所儂散，皆己物也。又細(xì)視車上一靶亡，是新鑿斷者。心大憤恨。急跡之，轉(zhuǎn)過墻隅，則斷靶棄垣下，始知所伐梨本，即是物也。道士不知所在。一市粲然。

While the priest was playing the magic the pear seller, standing among the crowd, craned hisneck to watch, forgetting his own business. When the priest was gone he found that all hispears in the cart were gone. It was not until then that he realized the pears the priest haddished out were all his pears. And then he noticed that one shaft of his cart disappeared andthe cut was fresh. The pear seller was bursting with anger. He dashed off to run after thepriest. Turning the corner he found the lost shaft was lying at the foot of the wall. And by thenhe realized that it was the shaft of his cart, not the tree, that the priest was cutting. The priestwas nowhere to be found and the whole marketplace was immensely amazed.

(劉士聰 譯)