Welcoming guests is a sacred art 迎客是一门神圣的艺术

Whenever my husband and I used to visit his grandmother in her rural Zhejiang village, there was one thing we could always count on – an onslaught（n.猛攻；突击） of hospitality.

每当我跟着老公去浙江农村看望他的祖母时，我们总会遇到一件事——那就是祖母的热情好客。

It didn’t matter that she was busy knitting a hat or scarf to earn some extra money. She would immediately pull out a stool（n.凳子） for us, sometimes even trying to offer her own seat piled high with cushions. Then came the cups filled with green tea leaves and hot water, a must for guests anywhere the village. And soon after she would disappear, usually to the kitchen where she would start soaking a batch of rice noodles to fry up（把食物煎热一下） in her wok（〔中国烹饪中使用的〕铁锅）, but sometimes to reach into one of her overflowing（过剩的，溢出的；充满的） bags of seasonal fruit, choosing the freshest apples or pears just for us.

有时我们回去时，她正在编帽子或织围巾来赚点外快。但一看到我们，她马上停下手里的活计，急忙为我们搬来凳子，有时甚至想将她的那把用垫子堆得高高的椅子让给我们坐。然后就是端茶倒水，茶水是村子里待客的必备品。把我们匆匆安顿好后，祖母经常就会钻进厨房，热点米粉给我们吃；有时就在她那满满当当的水果兜里挑挑拣拣，选最新鲜的苹果和梨分给我们。

Even if we just happened to say hello at the door, she would never let us leave without taking something to eat. On one occasion, where we chatted with her on our way to hike up the mountains, she was so insistent we accept her mandarin oranges（蜜橘） that she tried chasing after us. She never did catch up, but her resolve reminded me that hospitality was a serious business in the culture.

即使有时候我们只是在门口打个招呼，我们不吃点什么，她也绝不会放我们离开。有一次，我们要去爬山，就在路上跟她顺便聊了聊，她非得追着我们让我们拿点蜜橘再走。虽然她没追上我们，但她的举动让我深深感受到了热情好客这一品质在中华文化中的沉重分量。

And it wasn’t just her or my husband’s close relatives in the village who would welcome us in this way.

而且，在这个村子里，并不只是祖母或者我丈夫的亲戚如此热情的欢迎我们。

A woman always invited us over for dinner whenever we hiked through the pine grove（n.小树林；松林） surrounding her home. While cruising down a hill on our bicycles, a man standing outside his house holding a bowl of rice asked us to eat with him. A farmer picking cherries in the fields suddenly pushed his basket of sweet red bounty in front of me, insisting I must take some home -- and even forcing the cherries into my hands when I hadn’t taken enough.

每次我们徒步穿过一片松树林时，一个住在林子旁边的女人总是邀请我们去吃饭。有一次我们骑着自行车在小山上漫游，一个男人站在他家门口，捧着一碗米饭，邀请我们一起吃。还有一次，一个在田里采摘樱桃的农民突然把一篮子甜樱桃推到我面前，坚持要我拿一些回家——当我拿得不够多时，甚至强迫把樱桃塞到我手上。

In every case, these people would offer us some of the most cordial smiles I’ve ever encountered. Smiles that embodied the words, “Be our guest.”

每每这些人都会对我们露出我所遇到的最亲切的微笑。他们的笑容饱含了这样一句话——“来做客吧”。

As much as I’ve enjoyed hospitality in America, it doesn’t come close to what I’ve experienced in my husband’s hometown. In the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, where I grew up, it was rare to visit relatives unannounced and enjoy such lavish attention, and rarer for people to invite passers-by into their homes. And even if they did, at most you could generally expect something to drink, maybe some cookies or snack foods, but never a home-cooked dinner.

尽管我在美国也享受过热情款待，但我从未体验过在我丈夫家乡所经历的那种情况。我在俄亥俄州克利夫兰郊区长大，那里很少有人在未通知对方的情况下探亲，并获得如此关注；而且很少有人邀请路人进到家里。即使有人这样做了，也至多是喝点东西，吃点饼干或零食，绝不可能吃一顿家常便饭。

The generosity of people in my husband’s village – from relatives to strangers – has upended（vt.倒放，颠倒） everything I thought I ever knew about hospitality. It has introduced me to a world where doors are still left wide open with the hope that someone might wander in, and where it’s never trouble to stay a while, dine or even spend the night if needed. A place where welcoming others into your life -- even when it’s not on your schedule -- is one of the most sacred（adj.神的；神圣的） things a person can do. It can magically transform even the most humble surroundings, such as grandma’s two-room cottage（n.小屋；村舍）, into a heavenly corner full of warmth and humanity.

我丈夫村子里的人的慷慨大方——无论是对亲戚还是对陌生人——颠覆了我以往对热情好客的认知。它将我引向一个仍旧大门敞开的世界，这个世界欢迎他人做客，如有需要，甚至可以容人停留、用餐甚至过夜。有一个地方，即使你未曾料到，也欢迎他人进驻——这真是人所能及的最神圣的事情！它甚至可以将最简陋的环境，例如奶奶的两居室小屋，变为一个充满温暖和人性的天堂。

After what I’ve been blessed to experience here in China, I only hope I can pass it on by opening my home to someone else with kindness.

经历过我在中国的这些美妙经历，我现在只希望也能通过亲切地向别人敞开家门来传递这种美好。