Nov 7 is lidong(立冬), one of the 24 solar terms, marking the beginning of winter. Descriptions of winter are normally quite downbeat for obvious reasons. Winter means strong winds and snow – an environment in which it is uncomfortable to be.

11月7日是二十四節氣之一的立冬，標志著冬日之始。人們對于冬天的描述通常都比較悲觀，原因顯而易見：冬天意味著疾風寒雪，環境惡劣令人不適。

This unpleasant and even frightening aspect of winter is evident in literature. In Shakespeare’s King Lear (1606), the king has given away his kingdom and been rejected by two ungrateful daughters. He is out in the winter cold, suffering things that are usually reserved for the poorest and most wretched human beings.

冬天令人不快甚至有些可怕的一面在文學作品中可見一斑。在莎士比亞的戲劇《李爾王》(1606)中，國王放棄了他的王權，被兩個忘恩負義的女兒拒之門外。他在冬季的嚴寒之中，遭受著最可憐、最不幸之人所經受的一切。

The winter is bad enough for Lear, but being abandoned by his family is worse. A song from another Shakespeare play, As You Like It (1599), is fitting for this poor old man’s situation: “Blow, blow, thou winter wind, / Thou art not so unkind / As man’s ingratitude”. Here, winter is used to bring out the ugliness of inhumanity. There aren’t many things that are worse than winter, according to Shakespeare.

冬天對于李爾而言已經夠糟糕的了，但被家人拋棄無疑是雪上加霜。用莎翁另一部戲劇《皆大歡喜》(1599)中的一首歌來形容這位可憐老人的處境十分貼切：“不懼冬風凜冽，風威遠難遽及，人世之寡情”。在這里，冬天揭示了無人性之丑陋。在莎翁看來，沒有多少事能比冬天更糟的了。

Once winter became less of a threat to human beings, literary works featuring it became more positive. Since Charles Dickens, the representation of the season in literature has often featured happy Christmas celebrations.

當冬天對人們的威脅變小時，文學作品也將其刻畫得更加積極。從查爾斯.狄更斯開始，冬日在文學作品中經常代表著歡樂的圣誕節慶。

The cold and bleak mood of the winter weather provides a contrast to the fun and feasting going on indoors.

冬日所帶來的寒冷與蕭瑟，和室內的歡樂與盛宴形成了鮮明的對比。

Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1843) was the start of this, but Christmas is still a common, cheery element in stories that feature winter scenes today. Consider the joy felt by Harry Potter and his friends in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997) as they sit down for their festive meal:

狄更斯的小說《圣誕頌歌》開創了描繪這一冬日景象的先河，而如今，圣誕節依然是故事中描寫冬日情景時常見而歡樂的元素。看看J.K.羅琳在小說《哈利波特與魔法石》(1997)中如何描寫哈利.波特和他的朋友們坐在圣誕大餐旁所感受到的快樂，你就知道了：

“Harry had never in all his life had such a Christmas dinner. A hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce”.

“哈利有生以來從未參加過這樣的圣誕宴會。一百只胖墩墩的烤火雞、堆成小山似的烤肉和煮土豆、一盤盤美味小香腸、一碗碗拌了黃油的豌豆、一碟碟濃稠的肉鹵和蔓越莓醬”。

It is almost as much a pleasure to read about the meal as it might have been to eat it.

讀到這些美食的片段幾乎就和品嘗到它們一樣令人感到愉快。

Although winter still isn’t the most cheerful season in novels and poems, it’s safe to say that writers have certainly “warmed up” since Shakespeare’s days.

盡管冬天還不是小說和詩歌中最振奮人心的季節，但可以肯定的是，自莎士比亞時代以來，作家們筆下的冬天已經“溫暖多了”。