DIGGING IN THE GARDEN
园艺的快乐
By Sally Brampton
莎莉•布兰普顿

A few years ago I went through a period of such severe depression that life didn't seem worth living. It was like permanent winter, so bleak and cold that the sun would never shine.
几年前，我曾有一段时间患了严重的抑郁症，生活于我几近无可眷恋。我感觉身处永久的严冬，连阳光也无法穿透刺骨的寒冷。

Then I saw snowdrops pushing through the freezing, iron-hard ground. I looked at them every day until I felt that if they could come back to life, then so could I.
后来我看到雪花莲从冰冷坚硬的泥土里钻出来了。我每天看着它们，心想，如果它们可以挺过这个寒冬，那我也可以。

Those green shoots gave me hope in a way that nothing else had.
唯独是这些绿色的嫩芽，用独特的方式给我带来了希望。
As spring came, I started to put in more and more plants, until the garden was ablaze with colour. Life was growing through my hands; gentle, peaceful, but, above all, optimistic. If I gave love, it was returned, a hundredfold.
春天来了，我开始不断地在花园里种各种花草，整个花园都充满了鲜艳的色彩。生命通过我的双手不断成长，迸发着柔和宁静、乐观向上的气息。我给它们的爱意，它们百倍地回报了我。

I could spend hours lost in gardening. The form of depressive illness I have is biological. It has affected generations of my family and follows no rhyme, reason nor circumstance. I can be depressed when the sun is shining or I am surrounded by a group of loving friends.
我陶醉在园艺中，不知不觉就会度过好几个小时。我患有的抑郁症是遗传性的，已经影响了我家里好几代人，无规律可循，原因不明，也不知道什么时候会发作。无论是阳光灿烂的时候，还是和一群好朋友在一起，我都有可能会郁郁寡欢。

Of course, fresh air and exercise help to alleviate depression, but for me gardening is more than that. It represents endurance as well as hope.
当然，呼吸新鲜空气和做运动能够减轻抑郁的症状，但对我来说，园艺不仅仅是一种治疗的手段。它代表着忍耐和希望。

At the end of the first garden I made stood a tree, huge and magnificent. It withstood freezing temperatures and gale-force winds. It bent but never broke.
在第一个花园的深处，我亲手种了一棵树，高大茂盛，经得住刺骨的严寒和凛冽的暴风，即使被吹弯了也从来没有折断过。

The leaves dropped until it looked no more than a stark skeleton, but it always, always came back to life. And so I learned that we may be battled and bruised, but hope is a living thing.
每次落叶纷飞，最后只剩下光秃秃的树枝，它总是可以恢复生机。从中我懂得了一个道理：我们会经受考验，会跌倒受伤，但希望是不灭的。