英美文化赏析：维多利亚时期，那些能当英文名的花

The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened an exhibition on the Pre-Raphaelites of the 19th century last week, with 30 pieces showing wistful figures in draped clothing often surrounded with flowers. But while the floral touches might seem like colorful accents to us, to Victorians there was a language in the flowers.

上周，美国大都会博物馆举办了一场19世纪前拉斐尔派画展，展出的30幅作品中，裹着长袍的画中人凝神静思，身边往往鲜花簇拥。虽然画中的花朵对我们来说看上去像多彩的点缀，但对维多利亚时期的人来说，花儿们有其独特的花语。

Daffodils

黄水仙花

Daffodils, with their sunny hues, could mean unrequited love and chivalry, and here rest alongside thescrap of sheet music in Rossetti's "Veronica Veronese" (1872).

黄水仙拥有阳光的色泽，可以象征单相思和骑士精神。在罗赛蒂的《维罗妮卡·维罗纳》(1872)中，黄水仙花放置于曲谱之上。

Apple Blossoms

苹果花

An apple blossom could mean good fortune, the promise of better things ahead, or preference, and here Rossetti wraps an idolized woman from a Giovanni Boccaccio poem in its blooms.

苹果花可以象征好运、未来会更好的承诺或者偏爱。在这里，罗赛蒂把乔万尼·薄伽丘诗歌中一位偶像化的女子卷裹于苹果花之中。

Roses

玫瑰花

Still a common symbol, roses for the Victorians also meant love. Depending on their color, they could indicate the deepness or innocence of that love, ranging from white for purity to burgundy for anunconscious adoration. Here they are pink in a vase in a Rossetti study.

玫瑰花至今仍是常用的示爱之花，对维多利亚时期的人来说它也表示爱情。不同颜色的玫瑰花可以代表爱的深度或纯度，从象征天真的白玫瑰到象征无意识爱恋的紫红玫瑰，不一而足。在罗赛蒂的书房里，花瓶里插的玫瑰是粉红色的。