My Romantic Father

By Yue Daiyun

In 1927,my father Yue Senwei returned to his hometown after graduation.Some of his schoolmates had attempted to persuade him to work in Nanjing or Wuhan,but he insisted on going back to Guizhou Province,to his hometown.He planned to start a family and enjoy a happy and leisurely life there.

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My father enjoyed a sweet and happy life when he settled down in Guiyang,the capital of Guizhou Province.

He was a neophile.He liked wearing Western-style suits and often held a gentleman’s walking cane.He taught foreign languages,played violin,hosted dance parties,and criticized the local warlords in newspapers.He also made friends with church ministers and priests,practicing oral English,exchanging stamps,reading magazines,and drinking coffee with them.

His proudest moment after returning to his hometown was marrying my mother.She was ten years younger than him,and was the campus belle of the School of Art in the Women’s Normal University.They made their family the warm haven he had dreamed about for ages.

My father had four brothers.When my grandpa passed away,they decided to divide the family property.My father asked for nothing but the small back garden tended by my grandpa in his late years.

In the garden,there used to be an old building with upturned eaves,on which hung a plaque that read “Xiang Xue Hall,” where rows of magnolia and bauhinia flowers were grown,a big stone tank with golden fish was lying inside,and an old ginkgo tree towering over the scene.

1927年，父親樂森瑋學成還鄉。同學中有人勸他去南京，有人勸他去武漢，他都不聽，一心要回貴州家鄉，建立小家庭，享人間溫暖，盡山林之樂。

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回到貴陽，父親很是風光了一陣。

他穿洋裝，教洋文，手提文明棍；拉提琴，辦舞會，還在報上罵軍閥，都是開風氣之先。他喜歡和教堂的神父、牧師交往，練練口語，換換郵票，看看雜志，喝喝咖啡之類。

父親當年回鄉最得意之事，就是娶了我母親，比他年輕10 多歲，她是當年女子師范藝術系的?；?，從此筑成他多少年來朝思暮想的溫馨小家。

祖父去世，五兄弟分家，父親放棄其他一切，只要了祖父晚年刻意培植的小小后花園。

花園里原有一座帶飛檐的舊樓，掛著“湘雪堂”的牌匾，種著許多玉蘭花和紫荊花，還有一口養金魚的大石缸。高大的銀杏樹有很多年頭了。

My father renovated the garden thoroughly.He first bought a lot of magazines on Western architecture and interior decoration,and then designed a beautiful building in Western style,which was quite rare in Guiyang in the early 1930s.

My father was very satisfied with his work.He often threw family parties on weekends.The invited guests danced the waltz,foxtrot,and tango there,and he himself taught the new dances to others.While the adults joined in the dances,we kids ate up all the prepared candies and cookies.

It was the happiest time in my father’s life.

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Unfortunately,all the schools had to be relocated to evade Japanese bombings in late 1939.The No.1 High School in Guiyang,where my father worked,was moved to Wudang Village,about 3 miles away from downtown.They first had classes at a local temple,and then built some thatched cottages as classrooms.The faculty and staff had to live in the small,leased farmhouses.

In such a hard time,my father still maintained his romantic nature.He rented a grain barn against a hill.The barn was built on high ground,with no other buildings around—only a spacious threshing floor in front.

Our family of four lived almost one year in this barn.Despite the turmoil of war,my father managed to create a happy and carefree life for us.We often watched the sunset and had picnics on the hilltop.My brother and I had a lot of fun rolling around on the grassy hills,picking up wild flowers and red pod beans,and pulling bulrushes.My mother would knit the bulrushes to make whisk brooms to sweep the barn.

父親對這個花園進行了徹底改造。他買來許多外國建筑和室內裝飾雜志，自己設計了一幢美麗的小洋樓。那還是20世紀30年代初期，在貴陽確是絕無僅有。

父親對自己的杰作滿意極了。他常常舉行周末家庭舞會，賓客云集，華爾茲、狐步舞、探戈，都從這里傳播開去。他們在里屋舞興正酣，我們幾個小孩則在外屋把準備好的糖果點心吃個夠。

這是父親一生中最快樂的幾年。

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好景不長，大約是1939年末，學校疏散的命令下達，父親所在的貴陽一中奉命遷到離市區10 余里的農村烏當。先是在一個大廟里上課，后來又修建了一些簡陋的草房，教員則擠在租來的民房里。

父親仍不改他的浪漫，別出心裁地租了一座農民儲糧的倉庫，獨門獨戶，背靠小山，地基很高，面向一片開闊的打谷場。

我們一家四口就在這個谷倉里住了差不多一年。

盡管外面兵荒馬亂，我們還可以沉浸在父親極力營造的一片浪漫溫情之中。例如，我們常常去那座小山頂上野餐，欣賞夕陽。這種時候，我和弟弟在草地上打滾，摘野花，有時也摘一種野生的紅莢黑豆，扯回大把的蒲草，母親會將它們編成苕帚掃床。

母親還教我們用棕櫚葉和青藤編織小籃兒，裝上黃色的蒲公英花和藍色的鈴鐺花，非常美麗。

這時候，父親常常獨自引吭高歌。有時，我們也一起唱：“家，家，甜蜜的家。雖然沒有好花園，春蘭秋桂常飄香。雖然沒有大廳堂，冬天溫暖夏天涼……”

父親有時還唱一些古怪的曲子，我至今不知出自哪國，也可能是他自己編的。

中學教師的薪水不多，但鄉下物價便宜，生活過得不錯，常?？梢猿缘叫迈r蔬菜和鮮豬肉。

父母常以《浮生六記》的男、女主人公自況，“閑情記趣”一章，也就成了我的啟蒙讀物。

那時候，生活真好像一首美麗恬靜的牧歌。

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其實，所謂牧歌，也不過是自己給自己營造的一種假象。就在這個夏天，父親被解聘，失了業，罪名是與共黨分子來往。

我們一家恓恓惶惶地回到貴陽，真是過了一段非常窮困的日子。我常陪母親到貴陽專門收購破爛的金沙坡去賣東西，家里所有能賣的東西幾乎都賣光了。

生活的轉機，有時真是來得好奇怪。父親偶然碰到一個北京大學的老同學，他正在為剛成立不久的貴州大學招兵買馬，父親當即被聘為貴州大學英文系講師。

我們一家高高興興地搬到貴州大學所在地花溪。

這是一個非常美麗的小鎮，離貴陽市中心40多里地，但多少年來，這塊寶地不為人知。大約還在抗日戰爭爆發前三四年，喜愛爬山越野的父親就發現了這一片世外桃源。

他花了很少一點錢，在花溪買了一小片地，就地取材，依山傍水，用青石和松木在高高的石基上修建了一座長三間的房子。前面有寬寬的陽臺，兩邊有小小的耳房。走下七層臺階，是一片寬闊的草地，周圍鑲著石板小路，路和草地之間，是一圈色彩鮮艷的蝴蝶花和落地梅。

跨過草地，是一道矮矮的石墻，墻外是一片菜地，然后是籬笆?；h笆外便是那條清澈的小溪了，把大河里的水引向腳下一大片良田。草地的左邊是一座未開發的、荒草與石頭交錯的小山。

籬笆與小山接界之處，是一間木結構的小廁所，廁所前面有一塊光滑潔凈的大白石。我常常坐在這塊大白石上，用上廁所做掩護，讀父母不讓我讀的《江湖奇俠傳》和張恨水的言情小說。

新居落成，父親大宴賓客，大家唱歌跳舞，又是聽音樂又是聚野餐，很是熱鬧了好幾天。

這次重返花溪，父親欣喜若狂。雖然他的別墅離貴州大學足有10里之遙，但他寧可每天步行上課，也不愿住進大學的教師宿舍。

我們在花溪的生活又恢復到過去的情調：在小溪邊野餐，看日落，爬山，做點心，趕集，只是這里的集市要比烏當大得多。父親又開始快樂地唱起他那些永遠唱不完的老歌。

（摘自《天際月長明》海天出版社）

My mother also taught us to weave baskets with palm leaves and vines,and then decorate them with golden dandelion flowers and blue bellwort flowers.

While we were playing,my father would sing merrily.Sometimes,we sang together.The lyrics went like “Home,home,our sweet home.We have no beautiful garden,but fragrant orchids in spring and sweet osmanthus in autumn.We have no big house,but warm winter and cool summer…”

At times,my father would sing some odd songs.Until now,I still haven’t figured out where those songs came from.Maybe he composed them himself.

The price of goods was low in the village,so we managed to have a comfortable life with my father’s modest salary.Fresh vegetables and pork were the ordinary meal at our dining table.

My parents often compared themselves to the protagonists of the bookSix Records of a Floating Life(A number of articles recounting the domestic life and romantic joys in marriage by Shen Fu in 1808).I often read one of the chapters “The Pleasures of Leisure” when I was a kid.

For us,in those days,life was a pleasant pastoral paradise.

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However,the pastoral life was only a short-term illusion.That summer,my father was fired because he was suspicious of being linked with the CPC activists.

We soon went back to Guiyang and began a difficult chapter.My mother and I often went to Jinshapo,a recycling station,to sell our belongings.We sold almost all of our valuables.

The turning point in our life came unexpectedly.One day,my father ran into one of his schoolmates from Peking University.The schoolmate was then hunting talents for the newly established Guizhou University,and he invited my father to be a lecturer for the School of English.We happily moved to Huaxi Town where Guizhou University was located.

Huaxi was a beautiful small town situated around 12 miles away from the downtown area of Guiyang.It was rarely known to people at that time.My father accidentally found this idyllic world when he was hiking three or four years before the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-1945).

My father bought a piece of land in Huaxi Town with a small amount of money,and then built a house with the blue stones and pinewood available in the area.Surrounded by a hill and river,the house had three long rooms and one spacious veranda with one storeroom on each side.Beneath the seven-step stair was a wide lawn dotted with flagstones,and a ring of fringed iris and yellow loosestrife flowers.

Beyond the lawn was a low stone wall,neighboring a vegetable plot.The crystal clear river outside the fence flowed beside the plot and watered the vegetables we planted.On the left side of the lawn was a barren hill covered with weeds and stones.

In the corner between the fence and the hill stood a wooden toilet,in front of which was a glossy white stone.Pretending to go to the toilet,I often sit on the stone and read such books asLegends of Martial Arts Mastersand Zhang Henshui’s romantic novels,books I wasn’t supposed to be reading.

When the new house was completed,my father invited many of his friends to celebrate—we sang,danced,and ate for several days.

He was extremely ecstatic when we moved back to Huaxi.He gave up his faculty dorm room and walked to school every day,even though it was around 3 miles away.Our romantic life returned in Huaxi.We had picnics at the riverside,watched the sunset,climbed the hill,made cookies,and went to the food market,which was much larger than that in Wudang.My father started to sing his old songs merrily again.

(FromThe Bright Moon on the Horizon,Haitian Publishing House.Translation:Li Li)