盛开在油墨香里的报春花（二）
报春花出现在乔治·麦克唐纳的多部作品里。他的成名作《幻境》（Phantastes）的第三章，男主人公来到了仙界，发现了一群住在花朵上的仙子。作者这样写道：
我（男主人公）的注意力首先被小屋附近的一群仙女吸引了，她们正在聊天，话题似乎围绕着一株即将死去的报春花。她们说起话来像唱歌，说出来的话成了一首歌，如下：
“在我们出生之前
雪花莲姐姐死了。”
“在一个白雪皑皑的早晨
她像新娘一样来了。”
“什么是新娘？”
“什么是雪？
“从来没试过。”
“不知道。”
“谁和你提起她的？”
“那里的报春花
没有她就活不下去了。”
“哦，太可爱了！”
“别怕，
她会来的，
亲爱的报春花。”
“她傻吗？”
“她以后会回来的。”
“你永远不会见到她。”
“她回家去死，
“直到新的一年。”
“雪花莲！” “邀请她
没有用。”
“ 报春花非常无礼，
“我会咬她的。”
“哦，你这顽皮的荷包！
“看，她垂下了头。”
“这是她的报应，野芥，
“她快死了。”
“到你的吊床上-走开！”
“然后一个人摇摆。”
“没有人会和你一起笑。”
“没有一个人。”
“现在让我们哀悼吧。”
“把她埋了吧。”
“ 报春花走了。”
“除了花。”
“这是一片叶子。”
“把她放在上面。”
“接着悲伤。”
“荷包已经做到了。”
“挖深一些，可怜的人！
冬天会来的。”
“他无法接近她-
这是嗡嗡声。”
“她被埋葬了，美人！”
“现在她彻底完了。”
“这是责任。”
“现在可以玩了。”
（But my attention was first and chiefly attracted by a group of fairies near the cottage, who were talking together around what seemed a last dying primrose. They talked singing, and their talk made a song, something like this:
"Sister Snowdrop died
Before we were born."
"She came like a bride
In a snowy morn."
"What's a bride?"
"What is snow?
"Never tried."
"Do not know."
"Who told you about her?"
"Little Primrose there
Cannot do without her."
"Oh, so sweetly fair!"
"Never fear,
She will come,
Primrose dear."
"Is she dumb?"
"She'll come by-and-by."
"You will never see her."
"She went home to dies,
"Till the new year."
"Snowdrop!" "'Tis no good
To invite her."
"Primrose is very rude,
"I will bite her."
"Oh, you naughty Pocket!
"Look, she drops her head."
"She deserved it, Rocket,
"And she was nearly dead."
"To your hammock--off with you!"
"And swing alone."
"No one will laugh with you."
"No, not one."
"Now let us moan."
"And cover her o'er."
"Primrose is gone."
"All but the flower."
"Here is a leaf."
"Lay her upon it."
"Follow in grief."
"Pocket has done it."
"Deeper, poor creature!
Winter may come."
"He cannot reach her--
That is a hum."
"She is buried, the beauty!"
"Now she is done."
"That was the duty."
"Now for the fun."）
他们大笑起来，飞奔而去，其中大多数人朝小屋走去。在歌曲谈话的后半段，他们组成了一支送葬队伍，其中两个人举起可怜的报春花，荷包花咬了她的其中一片大叶子上方的茎而加速了她的死亡。他们庄严地抬着她走了一段，然后将她埋在树下。虽然我说her ，但除了长茎上的枯萎的报春花我什么也没看见。被大伙一致同意而遭驱逐的荷包闷闷不乐地朝她的吊床走去。她是荷包花仙子，看上去很邪恶。当她走到自己的茎时，停了下来，环顾四周。我忍不住和她说话，因为我站在她旁边。我说：“荷包，你怎么这么调皮？”
“我从来都不调皮，”她半生气，半挑衅地说：“只有当你靠近我的吊床时，我才会咬你，然后你就会离开。”
“你为什么咬可怜的报春花？”
“因为她说我们永远都不会见到雪花莲；就好像我们不够好，不可以看她。而她的确太傲慢了！-活该！”
（And with a wild laugh they sprang away, most of them towards the cottage. During the latter part of the song-talk, they had formed themselves into a funeral procession, two of them bearing poor Primrose, whose death Pocket had hastened by biting her stalk, upon one of her own great leaves. They bore her solemnly along some distance, and then buried her under a tree. Although I say her I saw nothing but the withered primrose-flower on its long stalk. Pocket, who had been expelled from the company by common consent, went sulkily away towards her hammock, for she was the fairy of the calceolaria, and looked rather wicked. When she reached its stem, she stopped and looked round. I could not help speaking to her, for I stood near her. I said, "Pocket, how could you be so naughty?"
"I am never naughty," she said, half-crossly, half-defiantly; "only if you come near my hammock, I will bite you, and then you will go away."
"Why did you bite poor Primrose?"
"Because she said we should never see Snowdrop; as if we were not good enough to look at her, and she was, the proud thing!--served her right!"）
作者在这一段情节中写到了四个花仙子：从未出场的雪花莲（snowdrop），奄奄一息的报春花（primrose）, 淘气的荷包花（Pocket, 即pocketbook flower）和有责任心的野芥菜花（Rocket,既wild rocket）。在森林里，雪花莲是最早开花的，迎着二月初的风雪绽放。报春花的花期通常从三月份开始，与雪花莲结伴欢笑于春风中。雪花莲是球根短生植物，春末凋谢，地面上的叶子全部枯萎，来年才会发出新叶。雪花莲从地面上完全消失时，报春花也开到荼靡，而此时正值荷包花和野芥菜开花。作者将他对大自然的细致入微的观察融进了童话创作中：因为花期相距甚远，荷包花仙子和野芥菜仙子是不可能见到雪花莲姐姐的，她们也没见过雪，所以与濒死的报春花才会有了一段鸡同鸭讲。当报春花对两位花仙子说她们永远也见不着雪花莲时，说的是大实话，却引起了易怒的荷包花的误会，以为报春花嫌弃她们不够好，才见不着雪花莲，所以急急地咬了报春花的花茎，加速了她的死亡。庄子的“夏虫不可语冰”说的也是同样的道理啊 。
我们再来翻阅一下乔治·麦克唐纳的最后一部作品莉莉丝（Lilith），它更像一部适合成年人阅读的宗教魔幻小说。第43章有一段：“寒冷抚慰了所有人的烦恼，化解了所有的痛苦，抚慰了每一次的悲伤。舒适吗？不， 悲伤在生活中被吞噬，将每一个美好的事物恢复了一百倍！我安枕无忧，充满着最安静的期望，呼吸着大地的丰富怀抱里的潮湿的气味，意识到报春花，雏菊和雪花莲的灵魂，耐心地等待着春天的到来。”（The cold had soothed every care, dissolved every pain, comforted every sorrow. COMFORTED? Nay; sorrow was swallowed up in the life drawing nigh to restore every good and lovely thing a hundredfold! I lay at peace, full of the quietest expectation, breathing the damp odours of Earth's bountiful bosom, aware of the souls of primroses, daisies and snowdrops, patiently waiting in it for the Spring. ）
我认为这里的报春花有两种隐喻。其一，在苏格兰，孩子们的坟墓上经常栽种着报春花，象征着复活。作者用报春花、雏菊和雪花莲这些早春的花来暗示同样的含义。其二，小说标题里的莉莉丝是《旧约》的人类祖先亚当的第一任妻子，在犹太教拉比文学中，上帝用同样的泥土同时创造了亚当和莉莉丝。莉莉丝因不满亚当而离开伊甸园，后来成为诱惑人类和扼杀婴儿的女恶魔。不知那些埋在开满报春花的坟地里的孩子是不是莉莉丝杀死的呢？男主人公的心上人罗娜（Lona）就是莉莉丝的女儿，也被莉莉丝亲手杀死了。
乔治·麦克唐纳的其它重要作品里还包括《交叉目的》（Cross Purposes）、《公主与哥布林》（Princess and the Goblin）、《在北风的背后》（ At the Back of the North Wind ）、《智慧的女人》（ The Wise Woman）等，所有故事里的个别章节也提到了报春花。 由此可见，他对苏格兰故乡的报春花的热爱已深入骨髓。
即使英国现代著名小说家和剧作家毛姆（William Somerset Maugham）自称不懂花草，但他面对报春花时也是怦然心动的。他在游记《客厅里的绅士》（The Gentleman in the Parlour）写道：“哎，一朵黄色报春花对我来说，可不是primula Vulgaris！它就是一朵黄色的小花，散发着淡淡的清香，和着雨，和着你心中一阵奇妙颤动的二月灰凉的早晨，和着肯特郡肥沃湿润的泥土气息，和着那些友善惨白的脸孔，和着议会广场上比肯斯菲尔德勋爵身着青铜色长袍的雕像，和着一个笑容甜美的女孩的黄头发，而今一头斑白。
（A yellow primrose to me, alas! is not primula Vulgaris, but just a small yellow flower, ever so faintly scented with the rain, and grey balmy mornings in February when you have a funny little flutter in your heart, and the smell of the rich wet Kentish earth, and kind dead faces, and the statue of Lord Beaconsfield in his bronze robes in Parliament Square, and the yellow hair of a girl with a sweet smile, hair now grey and shingled.）
他分明是借着报春花在写乡愁啊！