All over my garden I’ve planted nothing but roses, fragrant¹ and—if looked at from afar—ablaze with color like sunset clouds, I’d be very happy if anyone of my visiting friends should desire to pick and take some for their homes. I trust that any friend of mine carrying the rose would vanish into the distance feeling that his emotions had been rekindled².

A close friend came for a visit the other day. I know her to be a lover of flowers and plants. And for that reason I told her at her departure that she should pick a bunch of roses to grace her boudoir. I promised that the scent³ of the roses would be wafted⁴ far, far away.

That girl friend of mine, tiptoeing into the garden in high spirits, sniffed⁵ here and smelt⁶ there, but in the end she didn’t pick a single rose. I said there were so many of them that she would pick as many as she’d like to; I told her that I was not a florist⁷ and didn’t make a living out of them. Saying so I raised the scissors for the sacrifice of the flowers, but she stopped me, crying no, no, no!

To cut such beautiful roses would hurt one, she said. With her hands clutching at my sleeves, she told me that by no means should they be cut. Roses are the smiling face of the earth, and who could be so iron-hearted as to destroy a smile so intoxicating⁸?

My mind was thoroughly⁹ boggled: the ugly earth, the humble¹⁰ earth, the plain earth—it is for the sake of that smile that it wins the care and pity of people.

我在花园里种了芬芳的玫瑰花，远远望去，像一片燃烧的晚霞。我想等朋友们来做客的时候，让他们带一些玫瑰回家。我相信朋友们捧着火红的玫瑰渐渐消失在远方，一定能被重新点燃往日的情怀。

有一天，一位要好的女友来探望我，我知道她平常最喜爱花花草草。她临别时，我告诉她说，采一束玫瑰装点你的闺房吧，芳香四溢。

女友轻手轻脚跨进花园，东闻闻西嗅嗅，神采飞扬，就是不肯采摘。我说，没关系，多的是，我又不是花店老板，不靠玫瑰赚钱的。说完，我就举起剪刀准备献美。女友急忙拦住，高声叫着，不可不可。

这么美丽的玫瑰剪下来，让人心疼。她抓紧我的袖子叮咛：千万不能剪啊，玫瑰是泥土的笑脸，谁能忍心毁坏美得醉人的微笑呢？

我的灵魂猛然一惊：丑陋的泥土，卑微的泥土，朴素的泥土，因为玫瑰，露出了惊艳一笑，正因为这一笑，才赢得了人们的爱惜。