蛻變

故事要從那條蟲說起…

年前,友人送我一盆白色蝴蝶蘭,隨手擱置在書桌上。不想,沒幾日花朵全消失了,我在綠色花梗上找到一隻相當醜陋的蟲,正在爬行。

牠需要花,花是牠的食物。我又買一盆白色蝴蝶蘭,把蟲放在花瓣上,欣賞著看牠緩慢地啃食著花,吸吮紫色花蕊,一起聽華格納音樂,偶而抬起頭與我相望,似乎很滿足,我心裡問:你是葛里戈.薩姆薩嗎?

終於,蟲藏在葉與葉間吐絲作繭,並破繭而出化為美麗的蝴蝶飛走了。「我的靈魂,好像也有一部份跟著飛走了……」

Three years ago, a friend gave me a potted plant of white butterfly orchid, which I casually left on my desk. What I did not expect was that all the flowers disappeared within days. I then found a rather ugly worm on a green stem, crawling. It needed flowers for food, so I bought another plant of white butterfly orchid. I laid the worm on a petal. Watching it slowly chewing the flower and sucking into the purple stamen, I started to appreciate it. Together we listened to Wagner’s music. Sometimes it would raise its head to check on me, and seemed to be content. I thus asked: Are you Gregor Samsa? In the end, the worm hid between leaves and spat silk to form a cocoon. Later it broke loose, metamorphosed into a beautiful butterfly, and flew away. I was so touched at that moment.