2014-12-25

【Aiden in English】

        Every year, there is a time for celebration and it’s called Christmas. People have fun, relax, and enjoy this time of year. So in celebration of Christmas, Mom took me to Longwood Gardens in PA, a place where nature rules.

        Longwood Gardens are famous for their nature, and also the lights on Christmas. There is a conservatory like a green house. It’s packed with different kinds of flowers, trees, ferns, and vines. There is almost any kind of flowers in amazing colors I can think of. 

        In fact, I even imagined that the entire place looked like a rainbow trapped in a glass building. Poinsettia, firebush, scarlet sage, and many more lined the floor, while exotic species sat on walls or crazy flowers hung from ceilings. I saw many plants I’d never even realized that existed on earth. One of them was a red tubular flower that had four pedals, each shaped similarly to a petunia native to China and Kazakhstan. On and on, Mom and I walked through the green house, which appeared to go on forever. At last, we seemed to be getting somewhere when we found an extension off Exhibition Hall to Orangery, Mediterranean Garden, Palm House, Tropical Terrance, Silver Garden, and etc. As the passage winded and twisted, we saw more and more flowers. It was hard to imagine the time people had to spend planting a variety of flowers four seasons around. There was no end to them. Reds, yellows, blues, greens, violets, and all the colors seemed like a blur. Roses, lavenders, hibiscuses, camellias, cactuses, orchids, orange trees, pineapples, bananas……

        Finally, we went out to the cold Christmas air. The next thing that I had been looking forward to was lights that Longwood Gardens always had. When the sky grew dark, lights from about every plant outdoors lit up, brightening the dark night sky with different types of colors. Giant Christmas trees with ornaments of every kind dazzled and gleamed everywhere. All was calm and all was bright. Enormous oak trees had beaming lights wrapped around their gigantic trunks. People poured into here for this very moment, knowing it became once in a year experience and would be over in a flash. There were Christmas trees floating on the platforms in the middle of the Large Lake with shining lights, but the dazzling attraction was the reflection on the water. It seemed brighter than the tree itself and rippled with the water. Christmas music played as the holiday atmosphere continued to rise and rise. With the atmosphere, my spirit rose too. 

        This Christmas, I may have not expected to get any present. However, this trip to Longwood Gardens was much more than a present to me.

【紅霞譯文】

        每年聖誕節都是普天同慶的日子，人們笑逐顏開，盡情享受節日的快樂，為此媽媽特意帶我去賓州頗具自然風貌的杜邦花園即長木公園歡度節日。

        杜邦花園猶以自然園林著稱，當然聖誕節彩燈裝飾同樣引人注目；其室內展廳如同溫室花房，各種單雙子葉花卉草木本藤蕨類植物應有盡有，還有許多奇花異草完全超出我個人的想象力。

        實際上，如此浩大的室內展廳宛如一道氤氳瀰漫的彩虹籠罩玻璃房：一品紅、長隔木、一串紅等遍地開放，國色天香的稀有品種依牆而立，妍姿妖艷的花卉懸空高掛，有些植物我今生今世從未見過，甚至根本沒聽說過，其中就有這麼一株輪狀紅花由四瓣花冠組成，長得類似矮牽牛花，原產於中國及哈薩克斯坦。我們邊轉邊看，有種永遠走不到頭的感覺。等好不容易走出主館，我們又先後瀏覽了橘園、地中海花園、棕櫚屋、熱帶平原、銀海花園等。連接各園的走廊曲徑通幽，各種各樣的花卉一一映入眼帘，禁不住讓我感嘆那些為種花養草植樹付出艱辛勞動的園藝工人，這麼多東西一年四季怎麼整得完哇。紅黃藍綠紫五彩繽紛，看得眼花繚亂，玫瑰、薰衣草、秋葵、山茶花、仙人掌、蘭花、橘子樹、菠蘿、香蕉……，層出不窮。

        最後，我們終於置身戶外，現場感受今晚稍帶涼意的聖誕節氣息。我一直嚮往聖誕節夜燈，而杜邦花園從不會令人失望。當夜幕降臨，火樹銀花萬盞齊放，驅散了黑暗，把整個夜空映照得五光十色。挺拔的聖誕樹個個披上節日盛裝，萬暗中光華射；高大的橡樹渾身上下電燈泡競相綻放。遊客們絡繹不絕，都是為了親眼目睹這一年一度稍縱即逝的盛況美景。在大湖區中央水面上漂浮着不少聖誕樹，樹影婆娑，倒映湖中，看上去水下部分反倒比水上部分還要明亮。聖誕樂曲喧染了節日氣氛，同時也激發了我高漲熱情。

        今年聖誕節中，我並不期待得到任何節日禮物；然而對我來說，杜邦花園之行不是節日禮物卻勝似節日禮物。