國花系列:SUNFLOWER(俄羅斯)

Sunflowers have become the symbol of a world free of nuclear weapons. After Ukraine gave up its last nuclear warhead, the Defense Ministers of the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine met on a former Ukrainian missile base, June 4, 1996. They celebrated by scattering sunflower seeds and planting sunflowers. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry said, “Sunflowers instead of missiles in the soil would insure peace for future generations.”





前蘇聯人民熱愛向日葵，並將它定爲國花。現在俄羅斯把國花仍定爲向日葵“更無柳絮因風起，惟有葵花向日傾”。向日葵，嚮往光明之花，合人帶來美好希望之花，它全身是寶，把自己無私地奉獻給人類。關於向日葵，歷史上有一美妙傳說。古代有一位農夫女兒名叫明姑，她憨厚老實，長得俊俏，卻被後孃“女霸王”視爲眼中釘，受到百般凌辱虐待。一次，因一件小事，頂撞了後孃一句，惹怒了後孃，使用皮鞭抽打她，可一下失手打到了前來勸解的親生女兒身上，這時後娘又氣又恨，夜裏趁明姑娘熟睡之際挖掉了她的眼睛。明姑疼痛難忍，破門出逃，不久死去，死後在她墳上開着一盤鮮麗的黃花，終日面向陽光，它就是向日葵。表示明姑嚮往光明，厭惡黑暗之意，這傳說激勵人們痛恨暴、黑暗，追求光明。這向日葵便繁何至今。

The beautiful story of sunflower:

Once upon a time the earth was even more beautiful than it is today. The people of the earth lived close to nature and lived in peace. But one day a terrible thing happened. A strange spirit of greed entered the hearts of mankind. People began to be jealous of one another, and they were not satisfied with all the good things they already had. The nations wanted more and more of everything: more land, more water, more resources. They squeezed precious minerals from the earth to build terrible weapons to defend their nations from other, greedier nations. They killed one another. They polluted the air and the water with poisons. Nature began to die. This is called war. War is ugly. It destroys love and hope and peace.
很久以前地球要比現在漂亮很多，人們和大自然和平共處。但是一天一件可怕的事情發生了。一種奇怪的幽靈進入了人類的心臟。人們開始互相猜疑，並開始不滿足於目前所擁有的美好的事物。國家想要擁有更多：更多的土地，更多的水資源，更多資源。他們從地球上壓榨珍貴原料來打造可怕的武器來保護各自的國家.他們自相殘殺.他們把毒物排放到空氣中水中。大自然開始滅亡。這就是戰爭。戰爭是醜陋的它毀滅了愛，希望以及和平。



Then one day a magical thing occurred. The birds of the air, the animals of the land, and the creatures beneath the waters came to an agreement: if they were to survive, something would have to be done to stop these wars. Only through peace could their world survive.
一天一件不可思議的事情發生了。天上的飛鳥，地上奔跑的動物，以及水中的生命都聚到一起，它們得到了一個共識：如果要繼續生存的話，必須採取措施使戰爭停止。只有在和平的環境下它們才能生存。
“We cannot speak the human language,” they declared, “and mankind can no longer understand ours. We must find among us a symbol of peace so brilliant that all who see it will stop and remember that peace and sharing is beautiful.”

“我們不會說人類的語言，”它們宣告，“人類也不再理解我們。我們必須找到能代表和平的使者讓人類看到它就會停止戰爭並想起和平以及共享的美麗。”


“I am what you need,” said a golden sunflower. “I am tall and bright. My leaves are food for the animals, my yellow petals can turn plain cloth to gold, my seeds are many and are used for food by all living beings. Yet, the seeds I drop upon the ground can take root and I will grow again and again. I can be your symbol of peace.”
“我就是你們要找的，”一朵金色的向日葵說到。“我很高而且很明亮.我的葉子是動物的食物，我黃色的花瓣能將普通的衣物變成金色，我的種子非常的多並可以提供給所有的生物。而且我把種子撒在地上它可以很快的生根並繼續生長。我就是和平的代表。”

All nature rejoiced, and it was decided that the birds would each take one sunflower seed and that they would fly over every nation and plant the seed in the earth as a gift. The seeds took root and grew, and the sunflowers multiplied. Wherever the sunflowers grew there seemed to be a special golden glow in the air. The people could not ignore such a magical sight.

所有的生物都欣喜了並決定由鳥兒一人銜一顆向日葵的種子，飛便所有的國家並灑下種子作爲地球的禮物。這些種子生根並生長，向日葵不斷的繁殖。只要有向日葵生長的地方就可以看到一片金色的天空。人們不可能忽視如此奇觀。

Soon they began to understand the message of the sunflowers so they decided to destroy all of their terrible weapons and to put an end to the greed and to the fear of war. They chose the sunflower as a symbol of peace and new life for all the world to recognize and understand. A ceremony was celebrated by planting a whole field of sunflowers. Artists painted pictures of the sunflowers, writers wrote about them, and the people of the world were asked to plant more sunflower seeds as a symbol of remembrance.

不久人們就開始理解向日葵傳達的信息。他們開始摧毀所有可怕的武器，停止了貪婪並害怕戰爭。人們選擇向日葵做爲和平的象徵並開始了新的生活，對世界有了重新的認識和理解。

All nature rejoiced once more as the golden sunflowers stood tall with their faces turned eastward to the rising sun, then following the sun until it sets in the west. They gave their goodness to the world so that everyone who sees a sunflower will know that the golden light of peace is beautiful.

所有的生物再次歡舞起來，越來越多的向日葵屹立在地球上，面朝東部向着太陽升起的地方.並隨着太陽向西落下。人們把善良給予世界，讓每個人都能看到向日葵代表金色和平的美麗花朵。