清夜虫鸣 中国人心中最美的歌
Mosquitoes. Flies. Cockroaches. The bugs that thrive in the heat of summer vex Chinese urban dwellers just as they do in most of the world.
蚊子、苍蝇、蟑螂。这些在盛夏迅速繁衍的虫子给中国城市居民带来的烦恼，与它们带给世界上大多数人的并无二致。
But in China, some insects are viewed not as pests, but as pets — especially if they sing for their supper.
但在中国，人们不认为某些昆虫是害虫，而是把它们当作宠物——尤其是如果它们能为人们的晚餐伴唱的话。
Chirping bugs like katydids, cicadas and crickets are prized throughout the country, collected by children and old men who keep them in clay vessels or bamboo cages and nourish them with grains of rice and razor-thin slices of green onion.
蝈蝈、知了和蟋蟀这些会叫的昆虫，在中国各地深受人们的喜爱，孩子和老人们收集这些虫子，把它们放在瓦罐或竹笼里养起来，用米粒和切得非常细的葱叶子喂它们。
Crickets are even bred for their fighting prowess, and a pedigreed champion can be worth hundreds of dollars. But typical crooners can be bought from farmers in pet markets for a few dollars.
有人甚至专门培养战斗力强的蟋蟀，优良品种的冠军蟋蟀价值可达数百美元。但一般只会低声哼唱的蛐蛐儿，可以在宠物市场上从农民那里，花几美元就能买到。
“Summer isn’t complete without the sound of a singing katydid in your courtyard,” said Wang Xiaoming, 68, a lifelong Beijing resident who lives in a traditional hutong neighborhood, a warren of narrow alleys that are the last bastion of many Chinese traditions.
“院子里没有蝈蝈的叫声，就不是真正的夏天，”68岁的北京居民王晓明（音）说，他一辈子住在一个传统的胡同社区，这种穿插着狭窄小巷的大杂院，是许多中国传统的最后堡垒。
In contrast to the soft trill of the field cricket — “the bard of the grass,” one poet calls them — cicadas and katydids produce the kind of deafening hiss that can drown out conversation.
与农田蟋蟀轻声短促地叫声不同（一位诗人称它们是“草地的吟游诗人”），知了和蝈蝈会发出一种嗤嗤声，淹没人们说话的声音，震耳欲聋。
The practice of collecting singing insects is said to have begun 2,000 years ago. They were sought as good-luck talismans, and later as companions for imperial concubines, who kept them in gilded cages and found solace in the plaintive chirps that echoed their own cosseted, lonely lives.
据说早在2000年前，收集会唱歌昆虫的做法就已经开始了。人们找寻这种虫子，把它们当作带来好运的护身符，后来皇宫里的后妃们以这些昆虫为伴，把它们养在镀金的笼子里，昆虫发出的哀怨啁啾，对她们受宠而孤寂的生活来说，成为了一种安慰。
The insects are embedded in Chinese culture. Ancient poems praise their melodious songs, and many idiomatic expressions use crickets and grasshoppers as metaphors for fertility, friendship or the passage of time.
昆虫在中国文化中根深蒂固。古代诗词赞美它们的悠扬歌声，许多习惯用语里用蟋蟀和蚱蜢来比喻生育能力、友谊，以及时间的流逝。
In fact, in Chinese writing, the earliest character for summer takes the form of a cicada, and the one for autumn resembles a cricket.
其实，在汉字书写系统中，“夏”字最早的写法来自知了的样子，“秋”字的写法像一只蟋蟀。
The keeping of insects faded during the 1950s and ’60s, when Mao Zedong waged war on traditions deemed bourgeois and retrograde. But it has been revived in recent years by aficionados like Mr. Wang, a retired professor of Chinese literature, who is worried about its future. “Young people would rather play with their phones than an insect,” he said.
在20世纪5、60年代，对那些被视为属于资产阶级和落后传统的东西，毛泽东发动了战争，养虫子的做法就此逐渐消失。但近几年来，这种传统已被像王晓明这样的爱好者恢复了，王晓明是一名退休的中国文学教授，担心着自己这种爱好的未来。他说，“年轻人更喜欢玩手机，而不是玩虫子。”
There is, of course, a downside to befriending singing insects: They are among the most ephemeral of pets. Most live for just a few months, and even the most pampered katydid will be silenced by the first autumn frost.
当然，养唱歌的虫子也有不利的一面：它们是最短命的宠物。大多数只能活几个月，就连最受宠的蝈蝈，也会在秋季初霜后不再发声。
