Poppy Flowers & Opium ❀ 罂粟花 & 鸦片

cn-reader (61)in #cn • 6 years ago (edited)

I found this pretty yellow poppy standing at a hilltop in Gorkhi-Terelj National Park in Mongolia. The park is about 2 hours' drive from the capital city Ulaanbaatar. I hiked in this beautiful park and spent one night in a typical Mongolian ger camp in the valley. It was part of my trans-Siberian/Mongolian journey that summer when I took a couple of trains from Moscow all the way to Beijing. The view in the second picture here is from the same hilltop in the Gorkhi-Terelj National Park.

The Poppy Flowers

The first poppy flowers I've seen in my life were red ones, like the well-known symbol of Remembrance that people often worn on November 11th each year. When I lived in Belgium, I visited Ypres in west Flanders - where the red poppies were blossoming as in the devastated battlefields in the First World War. The red color of the poppies is like the soldiers' blood soaking the ground.

In 1915, a Canadian doctor and commander, John McCrae lost his friend in the battle in Ypres, and he was inspired by the red poppies in the fields to write the poem - 'In Flanders Fields':

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place;
...
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

There is also the Himalayan blue poppy. These rare blue poppies are native to the high Himalayan Mountains, and are difficult to grow.

The Opium & China

So you must have heard of opium? Among the many varieties of poppies, the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) , as you can see from its name, has the highest concentration of narcotics, and is illegal to grow in many countries. Opium has been used for medical purpose, and poppy seeds are regarded as a great food source.

The cultivation of opium poppy are believed to be spread along the Silk Road, from the Mediterranean all the way to China in the 15th century. The opium played a special role in Chinese history, as it was the catalyst for the 2 Opium Wars in the mid-19th century. Britain smuggled Indian opium to China through the East India Company for the Chinese produced tea. This did not only lead to the warfare, but also resulted in the Chinese's heavy addiction to opium, which lasted till 20th century and spreaded to overseas.

In fact, my grandma's father died from overdose of opium. He was so addicted to smoking that he had to sell everything valuable at home to keep buying opium. Eventually, the rich landlord lost all his assets, as well as his life. I heard this sad story from my grandma, and I believe it's only one of the many tragedies happened in Chinese families during that period.

The immigrants from China also brought opium smoking to America through gold rush and railroad work. As a result, opium dens became a common sight in the Chinatowns from San Francisco to the east coast of US.

罂粟花

上图中这朵美丽动人的小黄花拍于蒙古的一处国家公园，是那年夏天从莫斯科穿越西伯利亚和蒙古回到中国的路上去的。我只知道这是某种罂粟花，具体是哪种并不清楚。根据果壳网的说法，常见的罂粟科植物有“罂粟，虞美人，冰岛罂粟（野罂粟），鬼罂粟和黑环罂粟”。产鸦片的只有罂粟一种。这里有

果壳网具体的图文比较。我辨别了半天，暂且诊断这朵黄花为野罂粟吧。可能是相较欧洲的物种，亚洲的普遍偏精致？不止人类，连这来自蒙古草原的野罂粟也比样图里的冰岛罂粟娇小了一圈。

平时，我最常见到的罂粟科花要属虞美人了，那深深浅浅、亭亭玉立的红色花朵常丛生于路边或庭园中。

说起虞美人，我国秦汉时期有霸王别姬的民间传说，清朝曾有位诗人以虞美人虞姬的口吻作诗，想象她自刎后的鲜血让江边的花儿比杜鹃更红艳：

君王意气尽江东，
贱妾何堪入汉宫；
碧血化为江边草,
花开更比杜鹃红。

而在一站时期欧洲大陆的弗兰德斯战场，鲜红的虞美人盛放在战后满目疮痍的焦土之上，仿佛是被战士的鲜血所染红。

我曾去比利时西弗兰德斯省临近法国的伊普尔小镇参观弗兰德斯战场纪念馆。第一次世界大战期间，这个位于法比交界的重要战略地区成为同盟国和协约国争夺的焦点。伊普尔曾爆发五次战役，伤亡人数100多万。这里也是全球第一次被使用化学武器的地方。

1915年春，第二次伊普尔战役期间，加拿大军医麦克雷在佛兰德斯前线痛失战友，看着战场上在微风中摇曳的鲜红虞美人，麦克雷创作出著名的诗作《在弗兰德斯战场上》（全文请见上面英文部分链接），影响深远。

诗歌的开头和结尾都提到了战场上的虞美人：

在弗兰德斯战场上，
在一排排墓地的十字架旁，
罂粟花儿随风飘荡，
这是战友们长眠的地方；
......
我们将无法安息，
纵使虞美人盛开在弗兰德斯的战场上。

上面是我刚翻译的，原文节选如下：

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place;
...
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

之后每年的11月11日一战停战纪念日，很多人会在胸前佩戴“弗兰德斯虞美人”的鲜花或者胸针来缅怀战争中逝去的同胞。