清夜蟲鳴 中國人心中最美的歌

Mosquitoes. Flies. Cockroaches. The bugs that thrive in the heat of summer vex Chinese urban dwellers just as they do in most of the world.

蚊子、蒼蠅、蟑螂。這些在盛夏迅速繁衍的蟲子給中國城市居民帶來的煩惱，與它們帶給世界上大多數人的並無二致。

But in China, some insects are viewed not as pests, but as pets — especially if they sing for their supper.

但在中國，人們不認爲某些昆蟲是害蟲，而是把它們當作寵物——尤其是如果它們能爲人們的晚餐伴唱的話。

Chirping bugs like katydids, cicadas and crickets are prized throughout the country, collected by children and old men who keep them in clay vessels or bamboo cages and nourish them with grains of rice and razor-thin slices of green onion.

蟈蟈、知了和蟋蟀這些會叫的昆蟲，在中國各地深受人們的喜愛，孩子和老人們收集這些蟲子，把它們放在瓦罐或竹籠裏養起來，用米粒和切得非常細的蔥葉子餵它們。

Crickets are even bred for their fighting prowess, and a pedigreed champion can be worth hundreds of dollars. But typical crooners can be bought from farmers in pet markets for a few dollars.

有人甚至專門培養戰鬥力強的蟋蟀，優良品種的冠軍蟋蟀價值可達數百美元。但一般只會低聲哼唱的蛐蛐兒，可以在寵物市場上從農民那裏，花幾美元就能買到。

“Summer isn’t complete without the sound of a singing katydid in your courtyard,” said Wang Xiaoming, 68, a lifelong Beijing resident who lives in a traditional hutong neighborhood, a warren of narrow alleys that are the last bastion of many Chinese traditions.

“院子裏沒有蟈蟈的叫聲，就不是真正的夏天，”68歲的北京居民王曉明（音）說，他一輩子住在一個傳統的衚衕社區，這種穿插着狹窄小巷的大雜院，是許多中國傳統的最後堡壘。

In contrast to the soft trill of the field cricket — “the bard of the grass,” one poet calls them — cicadas and katydids produce the kind of deafening hiss that can drown out conversation.

與農田蟋蟀輕聲短促地叫聲不同（一位詩人稱它們是“草地的吟遊詩人”），知了和蟈蟈會發出一種嗤嗤聲，淹沒人們說話的聲音，震耳欲聾。

The practice of collecting singing insects is said to have begun 2,000 years ago. They were sought as good-luck talismans, and later as companions for imperial concubines, who kept them in gilded cages and found solace in the plaintive chirps that echoed their own cosseted, lonely lives.

據說早在2000年前，收集會唱歌昆蟲的做法就已經開始了。人們找尋這種蟲子，把它們當作帶來好運的護身符，後來皇宮裏的后妃們以這些昆蟲爲伴，把它們養在鍍金的籠子裏，昆蟲發出的哀怨啁啾，對她們受寵而孤寂的生活來說，成爲了一種安慰。

The insects are embedded in Chinese culture. Ancient poems praise their melodious songs, and many idiomatic expressions use crickets and grasshoppers as metaphors for fertility, friendship or the passage of time.

昆蟲在中國文化中根深蒂固。古代詩詞讚美它們的悠揚歌聲，許多習慣用語裏用蟋蟀和蚱蜢來比喻生育能力、友誼，以及時間的流逝。

In fact, in Chinese writing, the earliest character for summer takes the form of a cicada, and the one for autumn resembles a cricket.

其實，在漢字書寫系統中，“夏”字最早的寫法來自知了的樣子，“秋”字的寫法像一隻蟋蟀。

The keeping of insects faded during the 1950s and ’60s, when Mao Zedong waged war on traditions deemed bourgeois and retrograde. But it has been revived in recent years by aficionados like Mr. Wang, a retired professor of Chinese literature, who is worried about its future. “Young people would rather play with their phones than an insect,” he said.

在20世紀5、60年代，對那些被視爲屬於資產階級和落後傳統的東西，毛澤東發動了戰爭，養蟲子的做法就此逐漸消失。但近幾年來，這種傳統已被像王曉明這樣的愛好者恢復了，王曉明是一名退休的中國文學教授，擔心着自己這種愛好的未來。他說，“年輕人更喜歡玩手機，而不是玩蟲子。”

There is, of course, a downside to befriending singing insects: They are among the most ephemeral of pets. Most live for just a few months, and even the most pampered katydid will be silenced by the first autumn frost.

當然，養唱歌的蟲子也有不利的一面：它們是最短命的寵物。大多數只能活幾個月，就連最受寵的蟈蟈，也會在秋季初霜後不再發聲。