【精英翻譯】的部落格

Kate Sessions: The California Woman Whose Green Thumb Changed a City

樹媽媽——她把聖地牙哥綠化了

精英翻譯社轉自https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0058/348282/web/

Modern-day San Diego, California, is a city full of trees, flowers, parks, and plants. But up to the late 1800s, it was mainly dusty, empty land. San Diego’s development into a green city is widely credited to the efforts of one woman.

當今的加州聖地牙哥是一個到處都是樹木、花朵、公園和植物的城市。但一直到十九世紀末，大部分都還是一片塵土飛揚、空蕩蕩的土地。聖地牙哥能發展成一個綠色之都普遍被歸功於一名女性的努力。

Kate Sessions came to the city in 1884. Soon after, she realized she had a passion for growing plants and flowers, and in 1885 she opened a flower shop.

凱特．塞欣斯於一八八四年來到了這個城市。不久之後，她意識到自己熱愛種植植物和花朵，接著在一八八五年開了一間花店。

Seven years later, Sessions rented a small space downtown in what later became Balboa Park. Over the following decades, the strong-willed Sessions planted a hundred trees a year in the park, turning it into one of the most charming urban parks in America. She went on to introduce thousands more plants, flowers, and trees all over San Diego. Many of those were non-native, rare species that, thanks to Sessions, thrived in the hot, dry climate.

七年後，凱特．塞欣斯在後來變成巴爾波亞公園的市中心區租了一塊小空地。在接下來的幾十年間，意志堅定的塞欣斯每年在公園種一百棵樹，把它變成美國最迷人的城市公園之一。她接著還在聖地牙哥各地引進了數千種植物、花朵和樹木。其中許多是非當地原生的稀有品種，多虧了凱特．塞欣斯，它們在炎熱乾燥的氣候中成長茁壯。

Sessions died in 1940. Though she may be gone, Kate Sessions’s green thumb truly left its mark on San Diego. The city never forgot her and even put up a statue of her in 1998 to honor her as the “Mother of Balboa Park.”

凱特．塞欣斯在一九四○年過世。雖然她已不在，但凱特．塞欣斯的園藝才能確實在聖地牙哥留下深遠的影響。這個城市從未忘記她，甚至在一九九八年為她設立了一座雕像，向這位「巴爾波亞公園之母」致敬。