油菜花开，美丽中绽放希望 Rapeseed blooms bring beauty, lessons of resilience

After the Spring Festival holidays, there's one thing I look forward to most in March—the golden fields of rapeseed flowers that bloom across the terraced hills in my husband's hometown in rural Zhejiang province. It's a stunning display that ushers in the coming of spring, one full of beauty and resilience.

春节假期过后，三月份我最期待的一件事，就是我丈夫家乡所在的浙江农村，金黄色的油菜花在梯田盛开。这是一个充满了美丽和希望，令人惊艳的情景，迎接着春天的到来。

I say resilience, because rapeseed must survive some of the coldest days of the year before they flower, something I discovered one January while hiking among the snow-dusted terraced fields in the village. I was surprised to encounter neat rows of tiny green plants at that time of year, thriving in spite of the white flakes that covered their leaves and the soil around them.

我用“希望”这个词，是因为一月份我在积雪覆盖的梯田中发现，这些油菜籽在开花前，必须熬过一年中最冷的日子。在一年中的这个时候遇到长得整齐的绿色小植物，这让我很惊讶，尽管皑皑白雪覆盖了它们的叶子和周围的土壤，它们依旧茁壮成长。

How could anything flourish in such frigid weather, with temperatures that hovered around and even just below zero? But, as my husband explained to me, the rapeseed must take root in winter to blossom at just the right time, which happens to fall in March in the village.

气温徘徊在零度或者零下，这些东西怎么能在这么寒冷的气候下生机勃勃呢？我丈夫是这样给我解释的：村里的油菜籽必须在冬天生根，油菜花才能如期在3月盛开。

Those tiny plants eventually shoot up into sturdy rows of rapeseed around half my height. Then one day, as if by the wave of a conductor's wand, their petals gradually unfurl, painting every hillside in an exuberant shade of yellow that shines with a brilliance second only to the sun. It serves as a visual overture to the warmer spring days set to arrive, promising everyone who gazes upon these fields of gold that better times are coming.

那些微小的植物最终会长成一排排结实的油菜籽，大约有我半人高。然后有一天，它们的花瓣会像指挥棒划出的波浪一样逐渐展开，把每一座山坡都涂成生气勃勃的黄色，光彩仅次于太阳。它让人们看到，温暖的春天即将到来，并向每个凝视着这片金黄色田野的人承诺，美好的时光也将要来临。

The whole sight uplifts not only the landscape, but also the spirit within. I recall one day when, after receiving some bad news, I went on to counter it with a long walk in the hills, among these glorious rapeseed flowers. I'm certain they had something to do with the fact that I returned home with a lighter gait and a little more hope in my heart.

整个景象不仅美观，也会振奋人心。我记得有一天，在收到一些坏消息后，我继续漫步在山上，在这片光彩夺目的油菜花中。我回家的步伐变得轻快，心中也燃起了更多的希望。

It's extraordinary that such a spring spectacle could arise from what is arguably one of the most common crops in China. Rapeseed gets planted in fields across the nation because it serves such a basic and critical purpose in people's lives—to provide cooking oil for the household.

这种春天景观源于中国最常见的农作物之一，气象非凡。油菜在全国各地种植，对于人们的生活有一个基本且关键的作用——为家庭提供食用油。

 This is exactly the reason why my mother-in-law raises a plot of rapeseed every year, yielding enough cooking oil to last often well beyond 12 months. And while some fields of rapeseed flowers have emerged as great tourist draws, pulling in travelers from home and abroad, most are more like those in my husband's hometown, quietly performing for a local audience expecting their arrival each year, which heralds a good harvest later on.

这就是为什么我婆婆每年都种油菜籽，这足以提供超过一年用量的食用油。一些种植油菜花的地方已经变成吸引国内外游客观光之地，但大多数还是像我丈夫家乡一样，每年只是安静地供当地人观赏，迎接着他们的到来，也向他们预示着之后的丰收。

 This makes rapeseed blooms one of the most easily accessible delights of the spring. Merely setting out on a countryside drive in the right area at the right time of the year could give you the opportunity to witness their great golden bow of the season.

这让油菜花成为春季最容易获取的乐趣之一。只有在一年中适当的时间前往农村里适当的地方，你才有机会见证这个季节中壮观的金色。

This year, I won't have the chance to witness the blooming of rapeseed flowers in my husband's home village in rural Zhejiang. But as March comes, I will hold the dazzling vision of fields I've seen once before deep in my own heart as a reminder of the resilience of life—that after enduring some of the coldest and darkest days, we too can bloom into something beautiful.

今年，我没有机会一睹我丈夫家乡所在浙江农村里盛开的油菜花了。但随着三月的到来，我会在我心中看到曾经见过的那片绚烂的田野景象，提醒生活要充满希望---在经历最寒冷和黑暗的日子之后，我们依然能够绽放。