The Girl Who Picked Tea Leaves
Hsien Bing Ying文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14154.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14154.html
Because I would not obey orders and did not sit at home according to the rules, but played outside the whole day, Mother gave me a hard task to do. Every day after breakfast I had to go out and pick tea leaves.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14154.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14154.html
From my home to the tea garden, the distance was more than two li. My lunch was put in a basket, and someone carried to me. Besides my sister-in-law and myself there were many other girls, and we did not come home till sundown.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14154.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14154.html
I had no experience in picking tea leaves and often ruined the branches. Sister-in-law would be so worried that she would say, “You had better go and catch butterflies, and not go on breaking the tea branches. If Mother knew, she would scold you again.”文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14154.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14154.html
“No, I will go on. Did you know how to pick them when you were born or did you have to learn, too?”文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14154.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/14154.html
She was a poor talker and often did not know how to answer me, so usually she kept quiet.
It would be more appropriate if I called it picking flowers rather than picking tea. Every day on my return I had a small basketful of flowers. Going over the stone bridge, about fifty feet long, I would throw the flowers down to the water and let the stream carry them to Tungting Lake, with the bidding:
“O flowers, flow on to the palace of the Dragon King. His beautiful princess is preparing for her wedding.”
（Lin Ju Szu 译）
