Flower and Garden

新加坡綠化成績出眾，政府最近耗資10億坡元的園藝巨型工程（gigantic garden project）Gardens by the Bay，完工之後，規模比英國馳名全球的 Kew Botanical Gardens，有過之而無不及；Financial Times（英國《金融時報》）旅遊特稿，有以下一段生動描述：There are three predominating features in the Bay South garden landscape. Two are greenhouse domes for two very different types of plants and the third is an amazing array of tall Supertrees, seven of which are lit up at night by solar panels…. When completed, the plot will be covered with flowers and surface-hugging plants, 163,000 of them from 30 countries.

 

加拿大郊區一般住宅的庭院 yard，大多舖滿草皮，有前院 front yard 或後院 back yard。家居庭園 house garden 不同部分的名稱，常見的園圃詞彙有：yard 庭園，lawn 草坪，flowerbed 花圃，fence 籬笆，patio 內庭露台，trellis 籐架，greenhouse 温室。園景 landscaping 就是模仿天然景色，將環境加以人工整理的景觀 landscape，如假山、盆裁等人工設施，一般可以通稱為造園 landscape architecture 或園藝 horticulture。

 

你在花園種植花木 gardening，需做的園藝工作，包括：cut the grass, mow the lawn, weed the flowerbeds, sow seeds, plant flowers, water the plants, prune the roses and other bushes, trim the hedge, deadhead the wilted flowers。

 

園藝工具 garden equipment，常見的有：lawnmower 割草機，wheelbarrow 獨輪手推車，fork 叉，shears 大剪刀，trowel 小鏟子，spade 鍬，shovel 鐵鏟，rake 耙子，sprinkler 灑水器，watering can 灑水壼。

 

 

日常英語中，很多比喻和修辭，來自園藝和花卉。Many metaphors and allegories have their origin in the cultivation of flowers and plants：

 

Every thing in the garden is lovely，前景一片光明，情況令人滿意，everything is satisfactory, all things are going well, or it could not be better。例句：You say everything in the garden is lovely. Sales may look good but they’re actually 10% down on last year.

 

Common-or-garden，表示十分普通，very ordinary, not unusual；美語用 garden variety。這句成語原本用來描述植物中最普通品種的不同屬類，these two expressions were originally used to describe the most ordinary variety of a species of plant。例句：It’s just a garden-variety shopping mall, large but not special in any way.

 

Lead somebody up/down the garden path，你欺騙某人，令他相信不真實的事，you cause somebody to believe something that is not true; deceive somebody such as giving him wrong information so as to deceive him。Up 和 down 都可以；前者是英式說法，後者是美式用詞，也有人喜歡用另外两句成語，to put him off the scent 以及 to trail a red herring across the track，均指 to distract attention from the real issue。例句：The man had led the woman up the garden path, telling her he wasn’t married.

 

Have a green thumb（American English）和 have green fingers（British English）都表示精於園藝 = very good at keeping plants healthy and making them grow。你羨慕別人種花的本領，可以說：I was just admiring your beautiful plants. You must have a green thumb.

 

世界各國，均有代表性的國花，往往有深遠的文化意義。National flowers are symbols representing a country. Some national flowers have cultural or religious roots: rose 玫瑰就是美國、英國、保加利亞、捷克、塞浦路斯、和馬爾代夫的國花；其他國花有 maple leaf 楓葉（加拿大），plum blossom 梅花（中國），cherry blossom 櫻花（日本），lily 百合花（法國），tulip 鬱金香（荷蘭），lotus 蓮花（印度），orchid 蘭花（巴西）、sunflower 向日葵（秘魯）、cactuses 仙人掌（墨西哥）等。

 

 

Rose 玫瑰，花卉世界中，idiomatic expressions 琳瑯滿目，信用拈來，便有以下多句流行的慣用語：

 

a rose by any other name would smell as sweet，玫瑰不叫玫瑰，依然芳香如故，名稱並不重要，what is important is what people or things are, not what they are called。

everything is coming up roses，前程似錦，諸事順遂，it is developing in a successful way。

coming out of something smelling of roses，雖然捲入困境旋渦，事後名譽無損。

life is not all a bed of roses，生活有些困難，或者不完全滿意，life is not all pleasant and comfortable。

the primrose path，追求享樂，招致惡果，the pursuit of pleasure, usually the kind of which is likely to lead to disaster。

to take a rosy view of a situation，前景一片光明；即是說：to paint a rosy picture = to have a favourable opinion about something and to think that all is well。

假如你只注意到人生的光明面，你有可能太理想主義，太天真，不夠實際：You look at life only through rose-coloured spectacles.

 

本專欄逢周二、五刊登