I am no botanist but I have long found pleasure in herb-gathering. I love to come upon a plant which is unknown to me to identify it with the help of my book to greet it by name when next it shines beside my path. If the plant be rare its discovery gives me joy. Nature the great Artist makes her common flowers in the common view no word in human language can express the marvel and the loveliness even of what we call the vulgarest weed but these are fashioned under the gaze of every passer-by. The rare flower is shaped apart in places secret in the Artist's subtler mood to find it is to enjoy the sense of admission to a holier precinct. Even in my gladness I am awed.
Today I have walked far and at the end of my walk I found the little white-flowered wood-ruff. It grew in a copse of young ash. When I had looked long at the flower I delighted myself with the grace of the slim trees about it-their shining smoothness their olive hue. Hard by stood a bush of wych elm its tettered bark overlined as if with the character of some unknown tongue made the young ashes yet more beautiful.
It matters not how long I wander. There is no task to bring me back no one will be vexed or uneasy linger I ever so late. Spring is shining upon these lanes and meadows I feel as if I must follow every winding track that opens by my way. Spring has restored to me something of the long-forgotten vigour of youth I walk without weariness I sing to myself like a boy and the song is one I knew in boyhood.
我不是植物學(xué)家,但是很久以來,我總覺得收集花草是一種快樂。我喜歡碰見自己不認識的植物,然后借助書本來識別它,等到下一次我在路邊看到它搖曳弄姿,我便能叫出它的名字了。倘若發(fā)現(xiàn)的是稀有植物,那就更令我開心了。大自然這偉大的藝術(shù)家,在這個大千世界中創(chuàng)造出了普普通通的花草,可人類的語言中卻沒有什么詞匯來表達出它們的美妙與魅力,哪怕是那些被我們視為平平常常的野花雜草。然而如此被創(chuàng)造出來的花草,還只是路人皆見的。稀有的花草則是長在隱秘的地方,是大自然這位藝術(shù)家用更為微妙的心境,特意創(chuàng)造出來的。發(fā)現(xiàn)它,真有神魂顛倒之感,猶如步入神界那樣神圣。即使是在這快樂中,我也心懷敬畏。
今天我走得很遠,走到終了之時,我發(fā)現(xiàn)了開著白色小花的車葉草,它生長在小小的岑樹叢中。我久久地注視著這些小花,周圍優(yōu)雅修長的岑樹,光亮柔滑,郁郁蔥蔥,喜悅的心情真是難以言表。近旁還有一叢山榆樹,樹皮疙疙瘩瘩,仿佛是用未知文字的信手涂鴉,襯得這些小小的岑樹顯得越發(fā)美麗了。
無論我漫游多久,都沒有關(guān)系。沒有什么事要等我回去做。我閑蕩再晚,也不會有人因此而焦急不安。春日的陽光灑在鄉(xiāng)間的小路上,照得草地一片金黃,讓我覺得眼前伸向遠方的每一條蜿蜒小道,似乎都得走走。春天喚醒了我那些久已遺忘的青春活力,我不知疲倦地走著,就像孩子似的獨自歌唱,唱著童年時代所學(xué)的歌。