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.

1

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，父亲乐森玮学成还乡。同学中有人劝他去南京，有人劝他去武汉，他都不听，一心要回贵州家乡，建立小家庭，享人间温暖，尽山林之乐。

一

回到贵阳，父亲很是风光了一阵。

他穿洋装，教洋文，手提文明棍；拉提琴，办舞会，还在报上骂军阀，都是开风气之先。他喜欢和教堂的神父、牧师交往，练练口语，换换邮票，看看杂志，喝喝咖啡之类。

父亲当年回乡最得意之事，就是娶了我母亲，比他年轻10 多岁，她是当年女子师范艺术系的校花，从此筑成他多少年来朝思暮想的温馨小家。

祖父去世，五兄弟分家，父亲放弃其他一切，只要了祖父晚年刻意培植的小小后花园。

花园里原有一座带飞檐的旧楼，挂着“湘雪堂”的牌匾，种着许多玉兰花和紫荆花，还有一口养金鱼的大石缸。高大的银杏树有很多年头了。

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.

父亲对这个花园进行了彻底改造。他买来许多外国建筑和室内装饰杂志，自己设计了一幢美丽的小洋楼。那还是20世纪30年代初期，在贵阳确是绝无仅有。

父亲对自己的杰作满意极了。他常常举行周末家庭舞会，宾客云集，华尔兹、狐步舞、探戈，都从这里传播开去。他们在里屋舞兴正酣，我们几个小孩则在外屋把准备好的糖果点心吃个够。

这是父亲一生中最快乐的几年。

二

好景不长，大约是1939年末，学校疏散的命令下达，父亲所在的贵阳一中奉命迁到离市区10 余里的农村乌当。先是在一个大庙里上课，后来又修建了一些简陋的草房，教员则挤在租来的民房里。

父亲仍不改他的浪漫，别出心裁地租了一座农民储粮的仓库，独门独户，背靠小山，地基很高，面向一片开阔的打谷场。

我们一家四口就在这个谷仓里住了差不多一年。

尽管外面兵荒马乱，我们还可以沉浸在父亲极力营造的一片浪漫温情之中。例如，我们常常去那座小山顶上野餐，欣赏夕阳。这种时候，我和弟弟在草地上打滚，摘野花，有时也摘一种野生的红荚黑豆，扯回大把的蒲草，母亲会将它们编成苕帚扫床。

母亲还教我们用棕榈叶和青藤编织小篮儿，装上黄色的蒲公英花和蓝色的铃铛花，非常美丽。

这时候，父亲常常独自引吭高歌。有时，我们也一起唱：“家，家，甜蜜的家。虽然没有好花园，春兰秋桂常飘香。虽然没有大厅堂，冬天温暖夏天凉……”

父亲有时还唱一些古怪的曲子，我至今不知出自哪国，也可能是他自己编的。

中学教师的薪水不多，但乡下物价便宜，生活过得不错，常常可以吃到新鲜蔬菜和鲜猪肉。

父母常以《浮生六记》的男、女主人公自况，“闲情记趣”一章，也就成了我的启蒙读物。

那时候，生活真好像一首美丽恬静的牧歌。

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其实，所谓牧歌，也不过是自己给自己营造的一种假象。就在这个夏天，父亲被解聘，失了业，罪名是与共党分子来往。

我们一家恓恓惶惶地回到贵阳，真是过了一段非常穷困的日子。我常陪母亲到贵阳专门收购破烂的金沙坡去卖东西，家里所有能卖的东西几乎都卖光了。

生活的转机，有时真是来得好奇怪。父亲偶然碰到一个北京大学的老同学，他正在为刚成立不久的贵州大学招兵买马，父亲当即被聘为贵州大学英文系讲师。

我们一家高高兴兴地搬到贵州大学所在地花溪。

这是一个非常美丽的小镇，离贵阳市中心40多里地，但多少年来，这块宝地不为人知。大约还在抗日战争爆发前三四年，喜爱爬山越野的父亲就发现了这一片世外桃源。

他花了很少一点钱，在花溪买了一小片地，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长三间的房子。前面有宽宽的阳台，两边有小小的耳房。走下七层台阶，是一片宽阔的草地，周围镶着石板小路，路和草地之间，是一圈色彩鲜艳的蝴蝶花和落地梅。

跨过草地，是一道矮矮的石墙，墙外是一片菜地，然后是篱笆。篱笆外便是那条清澈的小溪了，把大河里的水引向脚下一大片良田。草地的左边是一座未开发的、荒草与石头交错的小山。

篱笆与小山接界之处，是一间木结构的小厕所，厕所前面有一块光滑洁净的大白石。我常常坐在这块大白石上，用上厕所做掩护，读父母不让我读的《江湖奇侠传》和张恨水的言情小说。

新居落成，父亲大宴宾客，大家唱歌跳舞，又是听音乐又是聚野餐，很是热闹了好几天。

这次重返花溪，父亲欣喜若狂。虽然他的别墅离贵州大学足有10里之遥，但他宁可每天步行上课，也不愿住进大学的教师宿舍。

我们在花溪的生活又恢复到过去的情调：在小溪边野餐，看日落，爬山，做点心，赶集，只是这里的集市要比乌当大得多。父亲又开始快乐地唱起他那些永远唱不完的老歌。

（摘自《天际月长明》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)