La Ronde

The world we live in is the best of many possible worlds.

Conrad and Lena planned to spend the summer with their mother until the end of September.Valentino still has something to go back to Paris, and he will leave in mid-August.Conrad then planned to go to Berlin with his sister to find a job, and agreed to reunite with Valentino in Berlin.

Valentino gradually got used to life in the small town, and sometimes he would help plant amaranth and pea sprouts in the yard.Perhaps the clock ticked slower in Bamberg than in other places, and Valentino enjoyed an unprecedented leisure.Even in his teenage years, when he could schedule meetings with his governess on his own, he had never slept until nine o'clock like this.

And on the day at the end of July, Conrad unexpectedly woke up earlier than him.Just after eight o'clock, Conrad knocked on the door and tried to wake him up.

"Valentino, don't sleep!" Conrad yelled, knocking on the door.Valentino thought something was wrong, but when he woke up, he recognized that the tone of the person calling him was clearly cheerful, so he responded and got up to take care of himself.

When he sat down at the dining table, Conrad had already finished a small bowl of smooth cream stewed eggs, and after taking a sip of milk, he excitedly explained the itinerary to Valentino: "Today is Bamberg There will be performances starting in the morning at the Sandkelwa Festival! There is also a fisherman competition, we have to get there early to get a good spot..."＊1

"Sunderkelva Festival?" Valentino searched his mind, making sure he had never heard of the festival before.

"Oh, this is a dialect... In High German, it's the Sand Street Church Completion Festival, which commemorates the completion of the Elizabeth Church on Sand Street... It's not important, the important thing is that there are many fun activities!" Speaking of here , Conrad's eyes were bright, he leaned into Valentino's ear and whispered, "There's a beer tent coming out at night...we can drink until twelve o'clock at night..."

Conrad and Valentino were talking, when Lena came over: "Conrad, don't think I don't know what you're talking about because you have a small voice! Come back tonight, Ms. Hedwig must smell you first The alcohol taste exceeds the standard, so you can go to the beer tent to spend the night—"

Conrad was about to make a distinction for himself, but when he looked up, he saw Lena dressed up. He sincerely admired: "Sister, you look so beautiful in this Bavarian dress! This has a festive atmosphere." Valentino Followed by a polite compliment.

Lina was wearing a dark green long dress with an open neckline and puff sleeves. The neckline and cuffs were embroidered with delicate lace, and the waist showed off her figure even more.She said to Conrad: "Don't change the subject. You love to drink, I can't control you, but at least come back after the smell dissipates, don't make mother sad." With long hair, she straightened the skirt again: "I bought this skirt when I was in liberal arts middle school. I never thought I could wear it."

Mentioning the days of studying in liberal arts high school, Lena showed a trace of sadness, and Conrad quickly said: "I also wanted leather pants with suspenders! After opening the suspenders, you can hang beer mugs. How cool, it's a pity that my mother Don’t buy it for me.”＊2

Valentino imagined wearing Bavarian suspenders and a feather hat, took a sip from the milk glass, and concealed his smile without a trace.

Lena also sat down and began to eat breakfast. She cut the bacon and said, "You grow fast. If you bought it then, you can't wear it now. Besides, your denim jacket is not bad..."

Valentino thought so too.While he had Conrad in suits, which worked well enough to look like a dame of the world, Conrad seemed to fit better with the more informal clothes.

Lina has an appointment with a former classmate and is going out late.Conrad and Valentino talked to Hedwig after breakfast, and went out first.

It was a fine day, and the sun was pouring down on the spectators waiting to watch the fisherman's game on the banks of the Regnitz River.Under Conrad's explanation, Valentino knew that the fisherman's competition does not focus on fishing, but two adjacent small boats with a rower on each side, and a rower holding a long pole at the bow. Fisherman, the first person to throw the opponent into the river with a long pole is the winner.

It was not the first time for Conrad to watch the fisherman's competition, but he was more nervous than Valentino, a foreign tourist.The skills of the two pole holders are not bad. Several times when they were on the verge of falling, they cleverly used their swing posture to regain balance.

Valentino observed for a while, and he found that although the skills of the pole holders were similar, the skills of the boatmen who were responsible for rowing to avoid the opponent's attack were different. The one who was farther from the shore was more skilled than the one who was closer to the shore.With a general grasp of the outcome, he focused more on Conrad.

Conrad was concentrating on watching the game, and even forgot to breathe when it came to a critical moment, his brows furrowed and stretched from time to time.Valentino found it interesting, but Conrad was dissatisfied: "Look at the game, our fishermen in Bamberg are very skilled! Who do you think will win?"

After hearing this, Valentino turned his eyes to the river again. He didn't want to spoil Conrad's fun: "Yes, these two fishermen have good balance skills. I don't know who will win."

Conrad was satisfied with this.

The game ended in a short time, and as Valentino expected, the group near the shore lost because the boatman made a serious mistake in judging the direction of the opponent's attack.He watched two more sets with Conrad until Conrad got bored.After all the fisherman competitions were over, the dance troupe and choir invited from Feldkirch would perform, so the two planned to take a casual stroll first.

In Bamberg for more than a month, Valentino has visited most places in this town, and Conrad is a native aborigine.However, Bamberg under the festive atmosphere is different from usual. Even the clothing store has hung up several sets of Bavarian traditional costumes to attract tourists.When Valentino saw those costumes, he remembered the morning conversation between Conrad and Lena. Conrad's eyes also made him realize that Conrad's interest in these costumes for coaxing children has not diminished. Offered to come in and have a look.

When Conrad saw the feather hat, he couldn't help picking it up and putting it on, and was attracted by the matching cane not far away.In the few moments he's been wandering around, Valentino has bought a set of plainly embroidered dark brown leather overalls and a matching white shirt.Conrad was still hesitating between the green vest and the red one. He couldn't afford the full set, but the vest was still affordable.It's just that there are no other occasions to wear except for festivals, so it is inevitable that it will be a bit wasteful.

It wasn't until Valentino called him that he came back to his senses, walked up to Valentino, looked at the suspenders and shirt in his hands, and couldn't hide his surprise: "I didn't expect you to like Bavarian traditional costumes, I thought you only wore suits."

Valentino smiled, and passed the clothes in his hand to Conrad: "I really only wear a suit, and this is for you. There is a fitting room here, you can try it on."

Conrad was a little embarrassed, and only then did he feel that his actions just now were inappropriate.I don't know from which specific node, he couldn't accept Valentino's gift with peace of mind.In other words, he never felt at ease about it from the beginning to the end.

Of course, Valentino saw his embarrassment, and he prepared his speech in advance: "I lived in your house during this period, and I didn't pay the rent, so this should be my rent."

Conrad's eyes loosened, but he still didn't reach out, so Valentino could only continue to say: "Or you can just pretend that you borrowed it from me, and return it to me slowly when you find a job in Berlin."

Conrad thought for a while, smiled, and took the hand.Considering that this was what he owed, he turned around and tried to bargain with the proprietress. The proprietress took all the money, and of course it was impossible to return part of it, but in the end he gave him the matching white socks and the last bow tie that could be turned out. --pink.

Conrad was not unhappy because of this, he took the suit to the fitting room with satisfaction, and when he came out, he was brand new, a pure Bavarian boy.He was not very old at all, but he was a few years younger in this suit, like a senior student in a practical middle school. *3 The pink bow tie at the neckline does not look obtrusive, but it makes his temperament softer.He is like a whiteboard, which can tolerate any color to be painted and superimposed on it.

Valentino looked at him intently, Conrad didn't feel uncomfortable, he said: "You can also buy a set as a souvenir, we wear it to drink together in the evening, no matter how many wine glasses there are hanging places! "

Valentino smiled and shook his head.Conrad persuaded a few more words. On the one hand, it was because of the commemorative significance and the wine glass. On the other hand, he couldn’t explain it—he had a little idea in his heart, and wanted to wear the same clothes as Valentino and walk on the street. on the street, but he didn't say it.Valentino still refused, and Conrad didn't push him any further.

After walking a little further, they heard that Feldkirch's song and dance troupe was coming, so they turned back along the same road and hurried back to watch the cabaret rehearsed by the song and dance troupe.

The narrow and long brick and tile old street is crowded with people. The shopkeepers on both sides of the street pushed their windows to the maximum, poking their heads out of the windows of beautiful cottages to sell. In the distance are the towering spires of the church and the clouds wandering around like cotton wool.

Conrad felt that Valentino was not walking fast enough, and was afraid of being separated from him, so he took his hand and strode forward.Valentino didn't react at first, since no one had ever done that to him before.Except for the few demonstrations he participated in in Paris, he had never been in contact with such a dense crowd, but he let Conrad drag him away.

Various lively festivals make the passage of time imperceptible, and the sun will soon be setting.The rose-colored sunset passed through the clouds and fell on the fairy-tale town, and the cool evening breeze brushed people's cheeks brimming with joy.

When the sky got darker, someone discovered that the water surface of the Regnitz River was shining with little lights. It turned out that the colored light chains on the shore were on.

Conrad ran to the river and looked at the long string of lights in amazement: "I have never seen such a string of lights in Bamberg..."

Valentino followed him: "Well, it's kind of like an Italian night."

They walked along the bank to the beer tents, and the carnival had already begun.Conrad jumped to the table where the smoked wine was placed and drank without being guided by anyone. Valentino was thinking about the little drunkard, but he still walked over to drink with him.Conrad hung his finished wine glass on his waist, showing his waistline.They didn't drink too late, and at about nine o'clock they left the beer tent to watch the fireworks in the street.

The flames from the fireworks rushed out, almost reaching the sky, and the whole town was illuminated by this warm light.When the fireworks show was over, the crowd dispersed in twos and threes, and they were ready to go home.

The street was dark and silent again, and Valentino couldn't see the color of Conrad's tie.He said with a smile: "I didn't believe in a word before, but now I think it may be right: the world I live in is the best of many possible worlds."*4

Conrad didn't know if he was drunk, so he didn't answer him for a moment.They just walked quietly on the moonlit street. After a while, Valentino heard Conrad's slightly trembling voice: "Is this... the best world?"

＊1 Sandkerwa is a local traditional festival in Bamberg. I couldn’t find a Chinese translation, so I transliterated it.It is Sandkirchweih in standard German, and the literal translation is the inauguration ceremony of the Sand Street Church. In fact, today is almost the same as the Oktoberfest...

When I wrote this paragraph, I mainly referred to the pdf on the official website of the festival, BambergerSandkerwa, which contains records of specific year festivals.But I made some adaptations, and in fact the fisherman's competition at the Sandkerwa Festival in 1968 was cancelled, and this event was replaced by a song and dance troupe invited from Feldkirch, Austria.

pdf address:

＊2 Introduce the traditional Bavarian costumes (you can search for spicy eyes), the long skirts worn by women are called Dirndl, which is the kind worn by Lena.The style is very nice, but there are red and green.

The suspender leather pants worn by men are called Lederhose, and Conrad can wear them to show his appearance, which has proved his own appearance.The red and green vest is not my invention either.

＊3Realschule, one of the three types of middle schools in the German education system, with a six-year system.The following is excerpted from the wiki: Students in practical middle schools do not have university entrance qualifications, but after graduation, they can be inserted into the upper grades of liberal arts middle schools with vocational subjects, or go to vocational training schools, or work directly.

＊4 I have changed this sentence a bit. The original sentence comes from Leibniz's "Monads": The universe that God chose to exist the best to fall possible worlds.