Cultivating culture and truly poetic landscapes
塑造文化与诗情画意的园林
Until recently, the depth of my personal "philosophy" of gardening has been as sophisticated as "that plant might look nice over there".
直到最近，我个人的园艺“哲学”高深如下：“这株植物摆在那块可能好看一点”。
That said, I've long appreciated the often deeply rooted philosophies that enlighten garden designs in different cultures, and especially in China.
即便如此，我一直都很欣赏不同文化中园林设计背后的哲学根基，尤其是在中国。
Portugal's Romantic-style gardens are eclectic to the point of seeming almost haphazard and purposefully overgrown. Tidy traditional English gardens are shaped around the existing terrain. In contrast, old-time French garden landscapers would, for instance, flatten hills to ensure symmetry that could be seen all at once.
葡萄牙的浪漫主义风格园林不拘一格，给人杂乱无章和有意蔓生的感觉。传统英式园林则是因地制宜、整齐划一。相较之下，老式法国园林会将小丘削平，保证对称性尽收眼底。
Chinese gardens are, instead, meant to be experienced scene by scene like scroll paintings and intermingle manicured and natural landscapes.
中国式园林则是要像画轴那样一幕幕展开，将人工与自然景观有机融合。
"Even though everything (in the garden) is created by man, it must appear to have been created by heaven," landscaper Ji Cheng (1582-1642) wrote in his monograph, The Craft of Gardens, in the 1630s.
明代造园家计成（1582年－1642年）17世纪30年代在专著《园冶》中写道：“虽由人作，宛自天开”。
Ancient Chinese gardens initially served as places of respite for otherwise overworked monarchs and bureaucrats, promising the work-life balance required by the Taoist imperative of equilibrium.
中国古代园林起初用作帝王和官僚的休憩之地，以纾解工作疲累，保证了道家平衡之道所要求的工作与生活平衡。
Over time, they were increasingly informed by philosophical and, in particular, poetic sentiments.
随着时间推移，中国园林愈加弥漫着哲学尤其是诗意情愫。
A notorious departure from this－later disparaged for its decadence－was King Zhou's Dunes of Sand Garden.
然而历史上也曾出现过臭名昭著的反例，也就是商纣王的沙丘花园，其骄奢淫逸被后人所唾弃。
It contained a "wine pool and meat forest". Hunks of roasted meat were skewered on the branches of the trees growing on an island set in a pond filled with liquor. Zhou and his concubines boarded boats to dip cupped hands into the firewater to sip and harvest the meat that seemed to grow on the branches like fruit.
沙丘花园中有“酒池肉林”，悬肉为林，以酒为池。商纣王和嫔妃乘坐小船，手捧烈酒品尝，大快朵颐生在树枝上的肉。
Other cultural motifs, some over two millennia old, have persisted.
其它的文化图案，一些已经有两千年之久，延续了下来。
Zigzagging bridges, for instance, represent the concept that you encounter hidden knowledge by taking detours rather than straight paths.
比如，曲桥就代表了对人生真谛的领悟是曲折而非平坦的。
Since around 200 BC, gardens often contained miniature replicas of Mount Penglai, three peaks said to be the abode of the eight immortals that are often represented as islets in ponds. This mythical realm can be likened to Eden, in that it's a place where the only thing not found in abundance is suffering, which is utterly absent.
自大约公元前200年以来，园林常包含有蓬莱假山，蓬莱三仙山据说是八仙的住所，在园林中就以池塘中小岛形式呈现。此般仙境就如同伊甸园，因为此处无灾痛的任何痕迹。
And certain plants are still organized according to figurative meanings, such as the "three friends of winter"－pines (longevity), bamboo (humility) and plum trees (tenacity)－which provide some sense of life in the dead of the coldest season.
而且有些植物也仍然按照寓意陈列，比如“岁寒三友”——松（长寿）、竹（谦逊）、梅（坚韧），它们为严寒的萧瑟点缀着一点生机。
Indeed, learning all of this has made me reconsider my own outlook on arranging my potted garden in Beijing. You could say that I think about it more, well, poetically than before.
的确，了解了这些让我重新思考如何安置北京寓所的盆栽花园了。可以说，我比以前想得更具诗意了。
