Wen|Liu Huangtian
On an ordinary summer evening, the twilight turns dark. I was sitting at the eastern end of the dining table, burying my head in chewing the tender and expensive sweet potato leaves. I could faintly feel the light being unusual. When I looked up, half a sun was sinking on the horizon in the distance. How to describe it? It is compared to an emperor who has successfully killed and conquered, facing the courtiers who are prostrate on the Danqi, about to accept the mountain call of “Long live my emperor”, and slowly sit down on the dragon chair? No, it is better to compare it to a red leaf in autumn, a fiery red apple falling to the ground, and the last piece of charcoal in the bonfire going out after people dispersed.
In short, it’s detached, calm, and leisurely that doesn’t take everything seriously, which made me put down my chopsticks and dare not turn my eyes.
There is a saying that sunset takes three minutes. I don’t have to look at the wall clock at home, I can tell by visual inspection that it doesn’t take that long, maybe just a minute, because it’s all gone, within a dozen or so blinks of my eyes.
There is a sunset and there is a sunrise. I enjoy the warm rays of the early sun, mostly in my east-facing bedroom. After retirement, I lay in bed and read e-books, the sun swept across my cheeks like a cat’s tail.
The balcony also faces east. The old wife used to hang her half-dry clothes on the balcony before the sun moved overhead. She firmly believed that the sun smelled best and that the clothes had to be dyed with the radiant fragrance.
Watching the sunset, sitting in the same position for more than 20 years. From middle age to old age, day after day, the sun’s parting autumn waves take care of it, and the wrinkles on the same face are filled with the afterglow again and again. Can I not praise the golden cookie-cutter?
Sunrise and sunset are simple repetitions? For itself, of course, the pulse of time, the rhythm of a corner of the universe. For people, it is life itself, and the morning, noon, and dusk of a day are the “miniature” cycle.
Many years ago, at the wedding of a foreign friend, the bride invited her elderly father to dance on the dance floor. The father is over seventy years old and his legs and feet are not very flexible. The daughter accommodates. Although the dance steps are slow, they cooperate well. At this time, the female singer of the band on the stage, led by the gentle prelude, sang “Sunrise and Sunset”. It’s a worldwide hit, from the Oscar-winning film “Fiddler on the Roof.” In the film, an old Jewish couple and their newly married daughter and son-in-law say goodbye at the train station. The scene where joy and sadness are intertwined is matched with this song.
“Is this the little girl I brought up? Is this the little boy playing? I don’t remember them growing up, when did they grow up? When did she become A beautiful one? When did he grow so tall? Didn’t they all were very young yesterday?” The audience was silent, only the singing was circling, and my heart was beating violently.
“Sunset, sunrise, sunset, time flies, seedlings grow overnight into sunflowers, blooming as we watch. Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset, time flies, seasons change, Full of joy and tears…” There was a row of more than a dozen people on the main seat, the older generation bowed their heads and wiped their eyes with napkins or handkerchiefs. Then came the younger generation, looking at their parents, their mood changed.
The melody became agitated, and there were more than 20 guests under the stage, and their eyes were shining with sparkling light. The bride finally couldn’t take it anymore, and in the polyphony of “Sunrise and Sunset”, she hugged her father tightly and cried. The father’s face was full of tears, but he smiled brightly. Finally, everyone stood and sang “Sunrise and Sunset”, and everyone left their seats and hugged their relatives and friends. The singer sang again and again, and his face was wet when the curtain call was made.
Every time I face the sunrise and sunset like this, the song “Sunrise and Sunset” will ring in my ears.
I have children too! In 1942, just after the Lunar New Year, I bid farewell to my wife and children at the Long Beach in Guangzhou and Chaoyang in my homeland, and got into the car heading for a foreign land. In the carriage, how do the six-year-old brother and one-year-old sister know the feeling of sadness? Play around a lot. A stranger was eating lychees next door and gave them a few. They ate it and threw the nucleus out the window, which was still home. Ahead, is a brand new second home. Since then, the sunrise and sunset in a foreign land has turned to the present day like a revolving lantern.
The same sunrise and sunset, the same seasons, the same rise and fall. Sitting in this position, what I have is a different age, a different world and state of mind, only the sun is eternal.