解放公园恋情
Attachment to the Liberation Park
在武汉提起解放公园是无人不知，因为位于市中心、占地面积有46万平方米之大的公园着实不多。新中国成立前这里曾是外国列强洋商的跑马场，1953年政府开始在这里建公园，1955年公园建成开放，命名“解放公园”。
The Liberation Park is a household word in Wuhan as it is rare to have a park that sits in the center of the city and has an area of 460,000 square meters. Before the founding of PRC there was once a race ground for merchants of foreign powers, and in 1953, the Government started the construction of a park, and, in 1955, the park was completed and opened to the public, and it was named the Liberation Park.
最初，解放公园中有池塘、溪流、树林、草坪、坡地和塔园；有梅花山、桂花岭、樱花坡、盆景园等园林景点。后来，渐渐增加了供游人娱乐的电影院、网球场、游泳池、保龄球馆。改革开放后又有了摩天轮、太空船、飞毯、三星旋椅、超级秋千和遨游太空等现代化游乐项目。
Originally, the Liberation Park was built with ponds, brooks, woods, lawns, slopes and tower gardens; garden landscapes such as the Plum Hill, Mayflower Ridge, Oriental Cherry Slope, Miniature Garden and so on. Later, gradually, various forms of amusement for the tourists came along: cinema, tennis court, swimming pool, and bowling alley. With the Reform and Opening to the outside world, the Park has seen the arrival of Ferris Wheels, Spaceships, Flying Carpets, Super Springs, Space Travel and other modern tourist programs.
随着生活水平的不断提高，人们对环境的要求也逐渐提高。由于园内水体原有的排水系统缺少循环，加之长期受周边生活污水的污染，湖中的植物和鱼类越来越少。2006年11月，武汉市政府开始对解放公园进行水体改造，用生物净化被污染的湖水，并采纳了加拿大园林专家文森特·艾思林的设计方案，在园内建立生态湿地。新建的生态湿地由1个大湖、2个小湖、4条连通沟渠及1个净水渠组成，整体湖水1年可循环3次。同时，引进了60余种水生植物。
Improved living standard of the local people makes for enhanced demand on the environment. The lack of cycling of the former drainage system in the Park, and the prolonged pollution from the surrounding household sewage, the lake in the park saw less and less flora and fish. In November, Wuhan Municipal Government began to reclaim the waters of the Liberation Park, purifying the polluted lake in a biological way, and, adopting Canadian landscape expert Vincent’s design to have a ecological marsh built in the park. The newly built marsh has a big lake, two small lakes, four connecting channels, and a water- purifying channel. The whole body of the lake water can circulate three times a year. In addition, it has introduced 60-plus aquatic plants.
改造后的解放公园更具天然的美，公园开始免费向公众开放。起初有人担心取消门票会使公园的环境受到破坏，但事实证明，广大市民的素质和环境意识提高了，大家都自觉地保护这块宝之地。
The remolded Liberation Park has taken on a more natural look, and it has begun to be accessible to the general public for free ever since. At the beginning, there was the doubt that free admission would lead to damage to the environment. Yet, the fact is that the general majority of the citizens with enhanced personal quality and environmental awareness have been conscious in protecting this treasured land.
我在武汉生活了30多年，最初从家到解放公园，步行需要25分钟，现在，走出家门5分钟就可到解放公园的3号门，家和心都离解放公园越来越近。30多年来，目睹了解放公园的变化和发展，近年来，更是与之朝夕相处，感情日渐深厚。
I have been living in Wuhan for 30 years. In the old days, it took me 25 minutes to walk to the Park from home. Now, a 5-minute walk will take me to the No.3 gate of the park. Spaciously and psychologically, the park has been closer and closer to me. In the past over 30 years, I have witnessed the changes and developments of the park. The close contact with the park in recent years gets me more and more attached to it with each passing day.
有时，早饭后出门买菜，先到公园散步一圈，正赶上脚步匆匆的上班族从公园走出，少数人是顺路从公园穿过，更多的人宁愿绕道穿过这绿色的大自然，让体魄健壮，精神爽朗。除了路过的上班族，公园里更多的是会享受的逍遥族，广场上，绿荫下，长亭里，聚集了很多不同群体，练功的、跳舞的、吹拉弹唱的。练功的身着飘逸的绸子功夫衫裤；跳民族舞的身穿鲜艳的舞蹈服装，手拿清一色的纱扇；跳交谊舞的男士西装领带，女士时装加高跟鞋，还化着适宜的妆；吹拉弹唱的更是要尽兴到中午或更晚。
Sometimes, during my strolls about the park before my morning vegetable shopping, I will see people going out of their way to go past this green expanse of nature. Apart from the passing office workers, many more in the park are leisure enjoyers, and, gathering on the square, under the shades, and in the long corridors, are various groups of people: some are practicing Kung fu, some are dancing, and some are playing musical instruments. The Kung fu players wear elegant silk Kung fu garments; dancers of ethnic dance are dressed up in bright dancing costumes, each a gauze fan in hand. As for the performers of social dance, all the men are attired in suits and ties, and all the ladies are wearing fashionable dress, high-heeled shoes and mild makeup; and the players of instrument will not leave until noon or later when they are satisfied to their hearts’content.
喜欢清静的我更多的时候是选择下午去解放公园，那时公园里的游客较少。带上相机，与老伴携手漫步在公园，踏遍每一条路，走过每一座桥，慢慢欣赏那成林的老树、碧绿的草坪、绚丽的花朵、湖中飘泊的小船、路上悠悠的身影和林中飞来飞去的喜鹊；细细聆听那鸟儿的歌唱和溪水从石头上跌落时哗哗的水声。还常见新婚夫妇在此拍婚纱照，夕阳下，花丛中，他们年轻的身影为公园增添了美丽的风景，感谢他们让大家分享他们的幸福。
As I prefer quietness, more often than not, I will frequent the park in the afternoon when there are comparatively few tourists. Taking along our camera, my wife and I walk in the park hand in hand. We walk over each path and bridge, admiring with relish the venerable woods, green lawns, bright flowers, boats floating in the lake, leisure figures on the roads, and magpies flying about in the woods; we lend an attentive ear to the chirping birds and the brook splashing against the rocks. We also see new weds take wedding photos, under the setting sun, and in the clusters of flower, their youthful figures add to the beauty of the park, and I am grateful to them for sharing their bliss with others.
改造后的解放公园经常举行大型的花卉展览，去年7月份举办了荷花展，12月组织了菊花展，今年3月又推出了郁金香展，规模一次比一次大。荷花展和菊花展以本地花卉为主，品种多，数量也多，同时还布置了有关花卉的科普知识展板，让游客赏花时还能学到育花的知识。虽然，由于年初的雨雪冰冻灾害，广东的郁金香的花期推迟，今年的郁金香展又不得不推迟了几天。但当5个品种共20万株郁金香和10万株风信子等呈现在阳光下的时候，所有的人都为之动容和感慨。公园1号门处的罗马柱下面摆放了大片的郁金香，公园中央的大舞台处的郁金香被摆成了3个大的菱形色块，2号门的进门处也摆放了成片的郁金香。粉绿色泛白光的叶子，大红、紫红、黄色的花朵，还有带黄边或白边的红色花朵，细腻的花瓣如绸缎般泛着耀眼的光，千万株鲜花放在一起，形成大面积的鲜艳夺目的色彩，令人眩目。改革开放初期，看到荷兰郁金香花园的大幅照片，曾为他国美丽的自然风光惊奇不已，如今自家门前也有如此广阔的艳丽郁金香，怎能不让人心怀激情，特别在严冬刚刚过去之时。从早到晚，络绎不绝的游客在公园里流连，不少人长时间坐在花坛边，享受那绚丽的春的气息。
The remolded park has been a venue of large-scale flower shows. The shows have grown larger one by one. Displayed on these occasions are mainly local flowers, and they are rich in variety and big in number. The exhibition boards to popularize the knowledge about flowers allow the tourists to acquire flower cultivation knowledge while they admire flowers. Though the snow and frost disasters have delayed the flowering of tulips in Guangdong, and the consequently the display of tulips has been put off by several days. Still, the 200,000 tulips and 100,000 hyacinths of 5 varieties blooming in the sun stunned all present. The green pink leaves glittering with white, and leaves of scarlet, violet red, and yellow, other colored flowers, and the delicate silky petals with dazzling glitters --- all these thousands of flowers were a dazzling burst of colors. When we began the Reform and Opening up to the outside world, I once saw a big picture of a tulip garden of Netherlands, and I had been wondering over the stunning exotic scenery. Now, just steps away from our house, we are able to see such big enchanting expanses of tulips.
5月1日上午，武汉传递奥运火炬的预演在解放公园举行，湖北省奥运火炬手——中科院院士鄂栋臣紧握奥运火炬（火炬并不点燃，以区别正式的火炬传递），带领百名志愿者传递火炬，围观的市民自动组成浩荡的队伍紧随其后。鄂栋臣是武汉大学的教授和我国南北极测绘学家，他曾6次赴南极、4次赴北极，被誉为我国的“极地之父”。鄂栋臣跑出数百米后，把奥运火炬传递给我省另一位奥运火炬手——武汉市交警刘钰琨。
In the morning of May 1, the Olympic Torch Relay rehearsal got under way in the Liberation Park. Torch bearer of Hubei Province, academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences Mr. Er Dongchen, upholding the Torch (unlighted), was leading one hundred volunteers in the torch relay, and, following close behind were the spontaneously organized citizens who were spectators of the grand scene. Mr. Er is a professor from Wuhan University and expert of the topography of the North and South Poles. He has been 6 times to the Antarctic and 4 times to the Arctic, and therefore he is called China’s “Father of Poles”. Hundreds of meters later, Mr. Er passed the Torch to another torch bearer --- Liu Yukun, a traffic police officer of Wuhan.
整个火炬传递路线从解放公园大舞台至嘉卉广场，沿途经过7个大型花卉扎景，它们分别代表本届奥运会火炬在国内传递的7个地点：珠穆朗玛、喀什、三亚、武汉、延吉、齐齐哈尔和北京。一个个巨大的花卉扎景制作精美，风格各异，表达了同一个美好的寓意，那就是人民爱奥运，全力支持奥运，要把奥运精神一代代传下去。
The torch relay route started from the stage at the Liberation Park and ended at Jiahui Square. Along the route were seven grand flower designed sights, signifying respectively the seven domestic locations in the torch relay route for the Olympic Games 2008: Everest, Kashkar, Sanya, Wuhan, Yanji, Qiqihaer, and Beijing. The huge flower made sights came in different refined styles and expressed the same good wish: all the people would love the Olympic Games and go all out to support the Games and carry on the spirit of the Olympic Games for generations to come.
图片说明
Interpretations of the pictures
1、 小桥流水斜阳Brook gurgling through the pinnock under the slanting sunlight
2、 湿地乘凉Enjoying the cool at the marsh
3、 迎奥运花卉（1—4）Flowers greeting the Olympic Games (1-4)
4、 三月桃花赛牡丹The peach blossoms in March exceeding peonies
5、 荷塘双秀The twin beauties in the lotus pond
6、 栈桥秋色The sight of the trestle in Autumn
