Two days ago, a friend announced to us classmates that she was sending photos she had shot only a few days ago in lieu of details about how she had been doing. They were all pictures of flowers taken in either her or friend’s yard. I clicked the site where they were placed, an array of flowers in full bloom came into sight, very pleasing and very uplifting. I couldn’t help smiling heartily. Next, I was pondering how to let her know my appreciation.
Telling her “gorgeous” or “beautiful”? Yes, they were wonderful words but plain and ordinary. Unimpressive. A few hours had past and it’s time to fix the dinner. I turned the kitchen faucet on, held vegetables underneath it, and started rinsing them. All the while, I was searching in my head the best descriptions that I could use. I was thinking of the words she used in this brief message, such as, “garden” and “the coloring of the spring.” I thought about her youthful looks and her immense social skills. And, I thought about the masterful capture of the spring in those pictures, which by then had been spread all around to us. Before I finished cutting these vegetables into pieces, a light of idea had struck me and I found the words.
Almost immediately, I turned, gaily, and stepped back to my desk to arrest the thoughts of the moment. I put down, among others:
“No color of spring can be contained in the garden.”
“滿園春色闗不住, 呵呵呵.”
Excluding the last three Chinese characters, the literal translation between the above two phrases is clear and correct. However, while “No color of spring can be contained in the garden” is innocent enough, the widely-known Chinese phrase has a naughty connotation, which my fellow Chinese natives probably can fully understand. As for the three ending characters, “呵呵呵,” they are laughter sounds and were added to further imply the intended pun.
A friend of mine once asked why I loved to write in English, this occurrence explains the reason well enough. I have fun.
