Enjoying the Moon
Ye Shengtao

People living in the small alleyways of Shanghai pay littleattention to the waxing and waning, or the visibility, of the moon. Theso-called “courtyards” in their houses are generally smaller than three meterssquare. And each room is illuminated by an electric bulb of at least 16 watts.Such a living environment is of course inconvenient for you to enjoy themoonlight. When you go out for a walk towards the evening, you’ll see thestreet lamps lit up one after another though it is not yet quite dark. Moon orno moon simply means the appearance of one extra street lamp or that one of thestreet lamps has gone wrong and ceased to give out light. Nobody cares.

Last summer, I complained that I could seldom hear the singing ofcicadas. Now I’m sorry that I haven’t seen the moon for a long time. I rememberhow late one night I happened to wake up to find no more blaring of the radiofrom the window of the opposite house, no more clatter of next door’s mahjongtiles and that all lights in the neighborhood had been put out. A creamy whiteray of light streamed in through my southern window to cast shadow of thewindow lattice on my quilt. I was somewhat surprised. Then, when it dawned onme that it was the moon, I immediately looked out of the window, curious tohave a look at it. But, unfortunately, it was soon hidden by the clouds.

People from Peiping often wonder why Shanghai landers should chooseto live in such a lousy place. They say life here is so full of tension, theair so foul, and the trees so scarce, and so on and so forth. I wonder if theapparent loss of moonlight might as well be listed among their reasons forstaying away from the city. But I would think otherwise, for it doesn't makesense to call the enjoyment of moonlight one of the requisites of life. Openheart and wide vision do not necessarily come of watching the moon. The samecan be achieved in self-cultivation, and that in a more practical way, bylooking earthward instead of skyward. Nevertheless, I’m not opposed to watchingthe moon. I only mean it doesn’t matter at all if you see no moon.

The moonlight I once enjoyed watching in the suburbs of Fuzhou,round a bend of the Min River, was the best I have ever seen. Over there, onenight as I leaned on an upstairs railing and gazed into the distance, I wasamazed to see the surging tidal water in the River sparkling like silver in themoonlight. The mountains along the river banks, enveloped in a thin mist,appeared quite different from what we had been accustomed to see. The moon washanging leisurely high up the sky. A wide sandy beach lay stretching all theway from the riverside to where I lived, showing a vast expanse of white in themoonlight, with slight undertones of green. Suddenly the sweet fragrance oftuberoses wafted up from somewhere. It might be the sweet fragrance of themoon, I thought. I stood lost in reverie. It was not until fifteen minuteslater that, turning round to see my own shadow on the plaster wall, I finallyreturned to my old self.

Of course it will bring me great pleasure to see the same brilliantmoonlight a few more times even though I’ve said, “ it doesn’t matter at all ifyou see no moon.”