So pretty much I had avoided roses altogether until recently when about twenty rose bushes came into my life. The only instruction that came with the roses was to trim them off to where there were five leaves. Being somewhat overwhelmed about what I considered the difficulty to take care of the roses, I anxiously pressed for more reliable information and augmented knowledge in rose cultivating. Rather than received mystical flower knowledge from the experienced gardener, I was told simply to water them. As with all things, I decided to do my best and see what would happen.
所以我几乎完全避开了玫瑰，直到最近大约二十株玫瑰灌木进入我的生活。随玫瑰而来的唯一指示就是把它们修剪到有五片叶子的地方。我有点不知所措，我认为照顾玫瑰的困难，我焦急地追求更可靠的信息和增加知识的玫瑰栽培。我没有从经验丰富的园丁那里得到神秘的花卉知识，而只是被告知要给它们浇水。就像所有的事情一样，我决定尽我最大的努力，看看会发生什么。
I had a prejudice about receiving flowers. Even though I had asked my colleagues and friends never to get me roses, they still did it from time to time. It was hard to conceal the disappointment that distressing me when I saw that exquisite white box tied with a beautiful velvet ribbon. “A little flower coffin” was the first thing that came into my mind. It was true they were grown to be cut down just for joyous moments, but even so as I looked at the flawless bright buds waiting to open, I still couldn’t stop thinking about them sitting on my dining room table, drying up and dropping petals. And all the while I was thinking, “pretty soon I’m going to have to throw those roses in the garbage and I’ll feel bad about that too.” They could be pressed in a book but either way it was all the same to them.
我对收到鲜花有偏见。尽管我曾要求我的同事和朋友永远不要给我买玫瑰，他们仍然时不时地给我买。当我看到那个精致的白色盒子，上面系着一条漂亮的天鹅绒缎带时，我无法掩饰那种令我沮丧的失望。“一个小花棺”是我第一个想到的东西。的确，它们是为了欢乐的时刻而被剪下来的，但即便如此，当我看着那些完美无瑕的、明亮的花蕾等待绽放时，我仍然不能停止想象它们坐在我的餐桌上，干枯、落下的花瓣。我一直在想，“很快我就要把那些玫瑰扔进垃圾箱了，我也会为此感到难过的。”他们可以被印在一本书里，但不管怎样，对他们来说都是一样的。
Knowing nothing about the physical structure of roses except the simple tips from the previous gardener, I went to shear them with a pair of kitchen scissors. Grabbing a withered pink rose, I looked at its lateral stem. Every few inches were a set of leaves. Those farther away from the flower had five leaves while those closer had only three. Where the set of three connected to the stem, there was a small bud — nothing much, just a point of color. There was nothing like this near the set with five leaves but following the instruction, I cut off the rose here losing bud and all. After several hours’ work, a pile of rose petals and stems lay on the ground and I swept them up without a bit of remorse.
我对玫瑰的物理结构一无所知，只知道前任园丁的一些小窍门，于是我用厨房的剪刀把它们剪了下来。我抓起一朵枯萎的粉红玫瑰，看了看它的侧茎。每隔几英寸就是一排树叶。那些离花较远的有五片叶子，而离花较近的只有三片。一套三个连在茎上的地方，有一个小小的花蕾——没什么，只有一点颜色。在有五片叶子的布景附近没有这样的东西，但是按照说明，我把这里的玫瑰切掉了，丢失了花蕾。经过几个小时的工作，一堆玫瑰花瓣和花茎躺在地上，我毫不后悔地把它们扫了起来。
The first roses of the year came in like a row of fire. Quite unexpectedly in the late spring, a row of rose bushes on the side of my house bloomed with a chorus of hundreds of pink flowers. There wasn’t much smell to them but as I had found out, every different type of rose had its own maturity period. While the other thinner bushes were taking their time growing their buds, these prickly weedy roses were past maturity and ready to be trimmed.
今年的第一批玫瑰象一排火苗一样开了进来。出乎意料的是，在晚春的时候，我家旁边的一排玫瑰丛开满了数以百计的粉红色花朵。它们没有什么气味，但是我发现，每一种不同的玫瑰都有自己的成熟期。而另一个更瘦灌木正在慢慢地生长它们的芽，这些带刺的杂草玫瑰已经过了成熟期，准备修剪。
I learned something that day. While waiting at the counter, recollecting about the youthful joy of acquiring even one ladybug — a childhood memory was more precious than gold — I asked the cashier in bewilderment how anyone could catch so many. I learned that these ladybugs are grown, not caught.
那天我学到了一些东西。在柜台前等待的时候，我回忆起年轻时得到一只瓢虫的喜悦——童年的记忆比金子还珍贵——我困惑地问收银员，怎么会有人抓到这么多瓢虫。我了解到这些瓢虫是成长起来的，而不是被抓住的。
Even though the roses bloomed wildly in my yard, like grass in the pasture, I still didn’t feel completely confident in my knowledge of their care. One day while passing by a garden shop I went in and browsed through the flower section. After getting bored with the how-to pamphlets, I wandered around and ended up by the floral coolers. Down at the bottom were canvas bags, bucket and small pails crammed full of ladybugs! The bag didn’t move too much like you would expect a bag of 500 insects to do, but I took a bag to the counter for no other reason than pure curiosity and the joy of having in my possession for a few moments a bag full of the gentle fairy tale creatures.
尽管玫瑰在我的院子里疯狂地开放，就像牧场上的草一样，我仍然不能完全相信我对它们的关怀。一天，我路过一家花园商店，进去浏览了一下花卉区。在厌倦了指南小册子之后，我四处逛了逛，最后发现了一个花卉冷却器。在底部是帆布袋，桶和小桶塞满了瓢虫！这个袋子并没有像你想象的那样移动很多，一个装满500只昆虫的袋子，但是我把一个袋子拿到柜台，没有别的原因，只是纯粹的好奇心和拥有一个装满这些温柔的童话生物的袋子的快乐。
Often while trimming the bush, I would watch the tiny world inside. Spider webs hung inside branches and while the spider usually hid from the scissors, I examined their homes. Some of them were dried and torn from their original foundations while others were fresh and shiny.
在修剪灌木的时候，我常常会看到灌木里面的小世界。蜘蛛网挂在树枝上，而蜘蛛通常躲避剪刀，我检查了它们的家。其中一些是干的，从原来的基础上撕裂，而另一些是新鲜和光泽。
that tell the sex of the bug or its age? I carefully cut a large hole in the canvas and held the bag over the rosebushes.
能告诉我们虫子的性别和年龄吗？我小心翼翼地在画布上挖了一个大洞，把包放在蔷薇丛上。
A few ladybugs weakly flew a few inches from the bag then dropped on the nearest branch while the majority, still remained crawling over each other inside the bag. After being shaken out of the bag, the rest hung slowly on the bush. A gust of wind blew across, and their instinct made them fly away in all different directions. Even though it was not the mass motion l had expected, for one brief moment l felt the joy of a liberator, as a compensation for their action.
几只瓢虫弱弱地飞离袋子几英寸，然后掉在最近的树枝上，而大多数瓢虫仍然在袋子里互相爬行。从袋子里抖出来后，剩下的慢慢地挂在灌木上。一阵风吹过，他们的本能使他们向四面八方飞去。尽管这不是我所期望的质量运动，但有那么一瞬间，我感受到了解放者的喜悦，作为他们行动的补偿。
On the car ride home, the bag began to buzz and move as it warmed up.
在开车回家的路上，袋子开始发出嗡嗡声，并随着温度升高而移动。
Once home. I just had to look at the ladybugs’ spots. Each one had four or six. Did
一回到家。我只是想看看瓢虫的斑点。每个都有四到六个。是的
Trimming off the roses became my daily work. After a time I went back to where I had trimmed before and noticed how the bush had grown. Even if a branch was cut to the set of five leaves where there was no bud, soon a small colored claw would appear, grow outward and eventually become a rose. Sometimes two would grow from the same branch and these in turn would create two new buds each. I began to notice a pattern and started experimenting. By cutting back to where the closest bud appeared, no matter how small, and no matter how many leaves it was attached to, you could double or even triple the number of flowers. I also found you couldn’t hurt the rosebush no matter where you trimmed it. The decision where to cut had to be made with figuring out where the most buds would likely appear if creating more flowers was the goal. Sometimes the decision to trim was made on balancing the branch one way or another because the roses themselves added a lot of weight. Sometimes it became necessary to trim back huge branches themselves when a bush grew over its boundaries. Roses, I found out, were not only delicate adornments for special occasions but also a representation of a kind of vigorous and enduring spirit. A rose branch held up by a bough, grew up to the roof on my house then descended down flecking the brick wall with delicate, red or white dots like a watercolor.
修剪玫瑰花成了我的日常工作。过了一会儿，我回到以前修剪过的地方，注意到灌木已经长出来了。即使一根树枝被切割成五片没有花蕾的叶子，很快也会长出一只小小的彩爪，向外生长，最终变成一朵玫瑰。有时候两个会从同一个枝条上生长出来，而这些枝条反过来又会产生两个新芽。我开始注意到一种模式，并开始实验。通过把花蕾切回最近的位置，不管它有多小，也不管它附着多少叶子，你可以把花朵的数量增加一倍甚至三倍。我还发现，不管你把蔷薇修剪到哪里，它都不会受到伤害。如果我们的目标是培育更多的花朵，那么我们就必须决定在哪里切花，以确定哪里可能出现最多的花蕾。有时候修剪枝条的决定是通过一种或另一种方式来平衡枝条，因为玫瑰本身增加了很多重量。有时，当灌木丛生长过边界时，有必要自己修剪巨大的树枝。我发现，玫瑰不仅是特殊场合的精美装饰品，而且是一种精力旺盛而持久的精神象征。一根玫瑰枝被一根大树枝支起，长到我家的屋顶，然后沿着砖墙下降，砖墙上有精致的红色或白色的点，像水彩画。
So I guess I don’t feel so bad anymore about the roses that have dried up on my dining room table. For sure I’ve trimmed back a hundred times that many since caring for my bushes. I’m still not accustomed to the thought of boxed flowers and maybe now I realize why. Roses that come in boxes are a mere fragment of the experience and perhaps the least rewarding part of the whole.
所以我想我再也不会为餐桌上枯萎的玫瑰感到难过了。当然，我已经修剪了一百倍，因为我照顾我的灌木丛。我仍然不习惯盒装花的想法，也许现在我知道为什么了。装在盒子里的玫瑰花只是经历的一个片段，也许是整个过程中回报最少的部分。
There is one rosebush that’s still a mystery. It never grows above two feet high and its two erect branches are no thicker than a pencil. Every few weeks, however, thirty of so huge red buds simultaneously pop up on its branches. Watching this bush is like watching a comedian you know who is going to slip on a banana peel. One day the buds all open and the bush arches from the weight. It has done this time and again with no damage to the branches so I just leave it alone. Apparently this bush has some serious business to work out and why should I interfere?
有一丛玫瑰至今仍是个谜。它从不长到两英尺以上，它的两个直立的枝干也不比一支铅笔粗。然而，每隔几个星期，三十个如此巨大的红色花蕾就会同时从树枝上冒出来。看这片灌木丛就像看一个你知道的喜剧演员在香蕉皮上滑倒一样。总有一天花蕾全部打开，灌木因重量弯成拱形。它已经这样做了一次又一次，没有损害的分支，所以我只是离开它。显然这个灌木丛有很重要的事情要解决，我为什么要干涉呢？
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