芝城之春秋 (the Spring and Fall in Chicago) by Yuruo (Sara) Shan

Sep 2

对于我来说芝加哥真正的入秋永远是在这个城市的初雪之后。这里总是十月底初雪，在这场雪之后，叶子才开始真正的变黄变红并且从树上落下。雪因为真的太轻太少，以至于停下后雪就完全不见了踪迹。从每年8月立秋开始到10月的初雪期间，我的穿搭往往非常混乱 --- 由短袖到大衣到棉袄再到短袖。第一场雪之后，我会稳定在风衣里面穿一件薄薄的短袖。这时秋季的特征也就明显起来了。温度会稳定在10度左右

曾经与一位朋友讨论过秋天和春天哪个更短。虽然春秋都是过渡季节，实际上却有明显的区别。秋天是天气突然变冷，但是真正的到来则是缓慢的。秋天其实在人类身体从第一次感受到天气转凉的时候就到来了，但实际上在入秋后会经历一段天气很混乱的时期。叶子总是慢慢变黄，速度缓慢到你可能察觉不到这种现象是什么时候开始的。当我们真正意识到秋天的时候满树早已通红一片，而落叶也已经开始归根。真正的秋天很短很短，可能就那么十天二十天，接下来便是漫长的会一直下雪的寒冬。春天是我们一直盼望着却迟迟不到来的。寒冬是那么漫长，从东方的春节起我们就开始期待春季的到来。然而树枝是光秃秃的，温度也稳定在零下。春天真正来的时候仿佛就是一瞬间。突然一瞬间门口树干的枝桠上开满了花，河水里开始有鹅和鸭子游泳，你便知道春季到来了。如古人苏轼所说，“竹外桃花三两枝，春江水暖鸭先知”。只是春天的温度还是一如既往的寒冷，甚至还会有春雪。只是比冬季好那么一丁点罢了。人们真正渴望着的春天的温度和百花齐放的样子其实也不过就是那么十几天，不会超过一个月就会入夏。

我一直认为岑参先生那句古诗“忽如一夜春风来，千树万树梨花开”若是形容的就应该是春天的花开而不是下雪的冬天会更美些，然而在文学里比喻却是如此重要的修辞手法。如此讽刺。

For me, the actual start of Autumn in Chicago is after the first snowfall in the city. It always snows here at the end of October, and after this first snow, the leaves start to turn yellow and red and finally fall off. The snow is so light and little that there is nothing about it left in this world after it stops. From the beginning of Autumn in August to the first snowfall in October every year, my outfits are often chaotic: I move from short-sleeved shirts to coats to cotton-padded jackets and return to short-sleeved shirts. After the first snow, I will wear a thin, short-sleeved shirt underneath my windbreaker for a long time. At this time, the characteristics of autumn become obvious. The temperature stabilizes at around 10 degrees Celsius.

I once had a discussion with a friend about “Which is shorter, Autumn or Spring?” Although Spring and Autumn are transitional short seasons, there are obvious differences. Autumn starts when the weather suddenly gets colder, but the actual arrival is slow. Autumn arrives when the human body first feels the cooler weather, but after that, we will experience a period of very chaotic weather. The leaves always turn yellow slowly, so slowly, you may not notice when it starts. When we finally realize and think about that Autumn, the trees have already turned red, and the fallen leaves have begun to return to their roots. The real Autumn is very short, maybe only ten or twenty days, followed by a long and cold Winter with snow all the time. We usually look forward to Spring, but it feels like it will never come forever in Chicago’s freezing cold. We have been looking forward to the arrival of spring since the Spring Festival in Eastern countries. Yet the branches are still bare, and the temperature remains steady below freezing. Spring will finally come in an instant: suddenly, the branches of the tree trunk at the door are covered with flowers, and geese and ducks begin to swim in the river. When you see that, you know that spring has arrived. As the ancient Chinese poet Su Shi said, "Three or two peach blossoms outside the bamboo are a prophet of the warmth of the spring river." (“竹外桃花三两枝，春江水暖鸭先知”) However, the temperature at this time is still as cold as ever, and there will even be Spring snow – It feels just a little better than winter. The spring temperature and the blooming of flowers that people have wanted for a long time will last only a dozen days, and Summer will begin in less than a month.

I have always thought about Mr. Cen Shen, an ancient Chinese poet’s speech: "Suddenly a spring breeze comes overnight, and thousands of pear blossoms bloom" (“忽如一夜春风来，千树万树梨花开”). I think it would be more beautiful if it described the blooming of flowers in Spring rather than a tree covered by snow in the snowy Winter. However, in literature, the metaphor is such an important rhetorical device. This is so ironic.

(Written on November 7, 2023)

Sara (Yuruo) Shan is a Chinese-American writer. Born in Shenzhen and raised in the United States, speaking both English and Chinese, Sara has lived in many places, and the bilingual culture has influenced her writing a lot. She writes essays, short stories, and poems. Most of her works are based on and related to her experiences of living in different places and growing up independently. She likes cats, coffee, video games, and music. What she really likes to do is to write at midnight, with a cup of iced coffee and her twenty-hour Spotify playlist.