自古以來，花草在文學中有著重要的地位。文人們借景抒情、托物言誌，賦予了花草獨特的象征意義。英國作家勞倫斯(D.H Lawrence)是其中的大家之一，讀者若想深刻領會他的一係列作品，除了擁有豐富的植物學知識外，還必須精通花草的文學及宗教含義。
此文來探討一下勞倫斯筆下的Lily。他的小說中出現了幾種百合科的lily,包括Madonna lily （聖母百合）、tiger lily (虎皮百合)、mariposa lily（蝴蝶百合），鈴蘭（lily of the valley）等。
在他的第一部長篇小說《白孔雀》（the White Peacock）中，聖母百合隱喻了一段注定要毀滅的男女之情。小說第三部第一章，“母馬走上陡峭的小山坡，山頂上矗立著公羊旅館。 在寂靜中，當馬車慢慢停下來時，我們（西裏爾與喬治）聽到了花園裏傳來低吟的歌聲。 我們靜靜地坐在車子裏，望著破舊的院子，看到高大的聖母百合從香雪球花叢中直立起來。 鮮花的旁邊是梅格，在鵝栗叢中彎著腰。” （The mare walked up the sharp little rise on top of which stood the Ram Inn. In the quiet, as the horse slowed to a standstill, we heard the crooning of a song in the garden. We sat still in the cart, and looked across the flagged yard to where the tall Madonna lilies rose in clusters out of the alyssum. Beyond the border of flowers was Meg, bending over the gooseberry bushes. ）
喬治打算與梅格去登記結婚的，梅格見到喬治來，卻說自己打算做布丁，她的雙手沾了鵝莓汁。她讓喬治把兩人的婚訊告訴她的脾氣古怪的老祖母。一直陪伴著這對新人的西裏爾（Cyril）寫道：“我坐在那兒，可以聞到白百合的香味”。（I could smell the white lilies where I sat）。這是一個不祥之兆，聖母百合代表著一股邪惡的女性力量。婚後，原本熱愛大自然、情感豐富的喬治接受了妻子安排的生活方式，他與大自然疏遠了，穿著硬領衫成天呆在室內。他開始酗酒，精神萎靡……
之後的第七章，西裏爾拜訪這對夫婦時，注意到原本朝氣蓬勃的喬治模樣大變，“梅格更壯實了，有一種不可動搖的自信。 她是權威的，和藹的，冷靜的。 她穿著漂亮的深綠色連衣裙，頭戴飾有華麗鴕鳥毛的無邊帽。 當她在房間裏走來走去時，她似乎支配著一切，尤其支配著她的丈夫，他皺著眉頭，垂頭喪氣地坐著，他的背心鬆散地垂在襯衫上。” （Meg had grown stouter, and there was a certain immovable confidence in her. She was authoritative, amiable, calm. She wore a handsome dress of dark green, and a toque with opulent ostrich feathers. As she moved about the room she seemed to dominate everything, particularly her husband, who sat ruffled and dejected, his waistcoat hanging loose over his shirt. ）
繼《白孔雀》之後，勞倫斯推出了半自傳長篇小說《兒子與情人》（Sons and Lovers），聖母百合出現在幾個重要章節裏，其邪惡隱喻愈發明顯。第一章，懷著第二胎的莫雷爾太太被酒醉的丈夫趕出家門，她注意到“高大的白百合在月光下搖搖欲墜，空氣中彌漫著芬芳，仿佛有一種存在感。 莫雷爾太太因害怕而微微喘息。 她摸了摸大而蒼白的花朵的花瓣，然後顫抖起來。 花瓣好像在月光下伸展開來。 她把手伸進一個白色的花朵裏：月光下隱約可見手指上的金粉。 她彎下腰仔細看著花朵裏的黃色花粉，但隻看到了暗淡的顏色。 然後她深深吸了一口香味， 這幾乎讓她頭暈目眩。” “莫雷爾太太靠在花園大門上，向外張望，她迷失了一會兒。 她不知道自己在想什麽。 除了輕微的不適感，以及意識到胎兒的存在，她自己就像花香一樣融化在閃亮、蒼白的空氣中。 過了一會兒，胎兒也和她一起融化在月光中，她和山丘、百合花、房屋化為一體，陷入某種暈眩。 ”
（The tall white lillies were reeling in the moonlight, and the air was charged with perfume, as with a presence. Mrs. Morel gasped slightly in fear. She touched the big, pallid flowers on their petals, then shivered. They seemed to be stretching in the moonlight. She put her hand into one white bin: the gold scarcely showed on her fingers by moonlight. She bent down to look at the binful of yellow pollen; but it only appeared dusky. Then she drank a deep draught of the scent. It almost made her dizzy.”
Mrs. Morel leaned on the garden gate, looking out, and she lost herself awhile. She did not know what she thought. Except for a slight feeling of sickness, and her consciousness in the child, herself melted out like scent into the shiny, pale air. After a time the child, too, melted with her in the mixing-pot of moonlight, and she rested with the hills and lilies and houses, all swum together in a kind of swoon. ）
古希臘神話中，女神赫拉在給大力神赫拉克勒斯喂奶時，少量的乳汁從天空中逸出，形成了銀河。 幾滴乳汁落到了地球上，長成了百合花。 愛神阿芙羅狄蒂非常妒忌百合花的完美無瑕，於是給了它們酷似驢陽具的黃色雄蕊。百合花代表了一種陽具巨大的雄性花，讓莫雷爾太太害怕、暈眩，不由自主地反抗。生下威廉和保羅兩個兒子後，她把全部的精力和希望都轉移到兒子身上，由此產生畸形的母愛。兩個兒子活在她的精神控製之下，威廉勞累致死，保羅直到母親病故後，才真正成人，開始了新的生活。
保羅在娘胎裏就聞到了百合香，出生後繼承了百合花的雄性氣質，這就注定了他不心甘情願成為母親的傀儡，與母親針鋒相對的“情敵”關係讓他痛苦不已。
小說第11章有一段精彩的景觀描寫：
“聖母百合的幽香悄悄地透過敞開的房門飄進來，突然，他起身出了門。 夜色之美，令他想放聲長嘯。一彎暗金色的新月正落向花園盡頭的那棵黑黑的梧桐樹後，月光把天際染成暗紫色。近處，百合花連成的一排暗淡的白色花牆穿過花園，四周的空氣似乎都散發著花香，生機盎然。他踏進石竹花壇，其刺鼻的香味和百合花搖曳的濃香摻合在一起。他在百合花旁停下。這些花都有氣無力耷拉著腦袋，好像在喘氣。花香熏得他醉了。他走到田裏去看月亮西墜。
幹草場上一隻秧雞叫個不停，月亮飛速墜落著，射出越來越紅的光。他身後的大花前躬著身子，仿佛在呼喚他。突然，他意外地聞到了另一種花香，有些刺鼻嗆人。環顧四周，他發現了紫色的鳶尾花，於是撫摸著它們肉質的花喉和仿佛在抓著什麽的黑色花瓣。不管怎麽說，他總算找到了。這些花僵硬地立在黑暗中，散發著嗆鼻的氣味……”
(Through the open door, stealthily, came the scent of madonna lilies, almost as if it were prowling abroad. Suddenly he got up and went out of doors.
The beauty of the night made him want to shout. A half-moon, dusky gold, was sinking behind the black sycamore at the end of the garden, making the sky dull purple with its glow. Nearer, a dim white fence of lilies went across the garden, and the air all round seemed to stir with scent, as if it were alive. He went across the bed of pinks, whose keen perfume came sharply across the rocking, heavy scent of the lilies, and stood alongside the white barrier of flowers. They flagged all loose, as if they were panting. The scent made him drunk. He went down to the field to watch the moon sink under.
A corncrake in the hay-close called insistently. The moon slid quite quickly downwards, growing more flushed. Behind him the great flowers leaned as if they were calling. And then, like a shock, he caught another perfume, something raw and coarse. Hunting round, he found the purple iris, touched their fleshy throats and their dark, grasping hands. At any rate, he had found something. They stood stiff in the darkness. Their scent was brutal……)
年輕的保羅在暗夜裏被百合花香熏醉了，接著又發現了紫鳶尾花刺鼻的香味，回到家，他作出了一個決定：“我要和米麗安分手，媽媽 。”（I shall break off with Miriam, mother）。當時的他雖然無法完全擺脫母親的精神枷鎖，作出了既符合母親願望也符合自己內心的決定，但這個簡短的聲明也表示了他男性自主意識的覺醒。
小說《虹》（rainbow）第11章,
“他們(厄蘇拉和安東)在夜色中返家， 四周一片慘淡的月光，以陰影和微光顯示存在。她清楚地看到了籬笆下的花朵，看到細細的白色禾捆散開在帶刺的籬笆上。
多麽美好，多麽美好！ 她痛苦地想，自從他吻了她，她今晚是多麽的高興。 但當他摟著她的腰一起走時，她對著月色皎潔的黑夜獻祭了自己，那一輪壯麗的神月，潔白坦誠如新郎，花朵銀白，變幻，填滿了陰影。 ”
（They went home through the night that was all pale and glowing around, with shadows and glimmerings and presences. Distinctly, she saw the flowers in the hedge-bottoms, she saw the thin, raked sheaves flung white upon the thorny hedge.
How beautiful, how beautiful it was! She thought with anguish how wildly happy she was to-night, since he had kissed her. But as he walked with his arm round her waist, she turned with a great offering of herself to the night that glistened tremendous, a magnificent godly moon, white, and candid as a bridegroom, flowers silvery and transformed filling up the shadows. ）
勞倫斯沒有點出花名，但參照《兒子與情人》的相關景色描寫，讀者很容易把月光下的銀白花朵聯想成聖母百合。女主人公Ursula (厄蘇拉)感到了大自然中雄性力量的強大和威脅，而自己不得不屈從於這種力量，由衷地感到憤怒。 在隨後的情節中，“她吻了他，她的吻狠狠地抓住了他，又硬又猛，像燃燒著腐蝕性的月光。 她似乎要毀了他。 他暈倒了，用盡全身的力氣將他的吻留在她身上，讓自己留在這個吻中。 但她緊緊地猛烈地抓住他，像月亮一樣冰冷，像烈鹽一樣燃燒。 直到他這個溫暖、柔軟的鐵塊漸漸屈服了，屈服了，而她依舊凶猛、具有腐蝕性，隨著他的毀滅而沸騰，像某種殘忍的、腐蝕性的鹽一樣圍繞著他的生命最後的物質沸騰，毀滅他，在吻中毀滅他。 她的靈魂因勝利而結晶，而他的靈魂因痛苦和毀滅而溶解。 所以她把他抱在那裏，一個被吞噬，被殲滅的受害者。 她勝利了：他什麽也不是了。 ”
（She took him in the kiss, hard her kiss seized upon him, hard and fierce and burning corrosive as the moonlight. She seemed to be destroying him. He was reeling, summoning all his strength to keep his kiss upon her, to keep himself in the kiss.
But hard and fierce she had fastened upon him, cold as the moon and burning as a fierce salt. Till gradually his warm, soft iron yielded, yielded, and she was there fierce, corrosive, seething with his destruction, seething like some cruel, corrosive salt around the last substance of his being, destroying him, destroying him in the kiss. And her soul crystallized with triumph, and his soul was dissolved with agony and annihilation. So she held him there, the victim, consumed, annihilated. She had triumphed: he was not any more. ）
厄蘇拉是英國工業革命後出現的現代人，受過高等教育，試圖探索新的兩性關係，卻屢受挫折。 勞倫斯通過聖母百合闡述了自己的觀點：女性意識與自然的陽具力量是一種親密的互補關係，但如果缺乏男性語言意識的自然發泄，這種覺醒會變得危險，呈現出歇斯底裏的狀態。
原生於巴爾幹和中東地區的聖母百合傳到歐洲後，廣受民眾的喜愛，從五世紀起，與基督教聯係在一起，尤其與聖母瑪利亞密切相關，象征著純潔和謙虛。信徒們采摘下新鮮的聖母百合，供奉在教堂裏。而勞倫斯對百合花語的解釋卻是反傳統的，他認為“a plucked lily”（一朵被采摘的百合）是沒有生命力的，雄性的花離開了滋養它的雌性的根，兩性關係就會失衡。他在多部作品裏表達了這個觀點，現摘錄以下幾段。
第一處：《亞倫杖》（Aaron’s Rod）講述了男主人公亞倫在一戰期間遊曆歐洲的經曆。他在意大利佛羅倫薩遇到了一位叫Lilly的女子， 第17章：
“陽光，可愛的充足的陽光，溫暖地徘徊在陽台上，照著如百合花尖的教堂側端的立麵，照著喬托鍾樓的柱子，像一根百合花莖，或者像大教堂百合花上的長長的可愛淺粉色、白色和綠色的雌蕊。Florence，繁花似錦的小鎮。Firenze—Fiorenze，繁花似錦的小鎮：紅百合。Fiorentini，花之魂。在泥土和淤泥中紮根的花朵，應該是這樣的：在空氣中開出無畏的花朵，就像大教堂、鍾樓和大衛一樣。 ”
“我喜歡它，”莉莉說。 “我喜歡這個地方，我喜歡大教堂和鍾樓。我喜歡它的粉紅色和蒼白。哥特人的靈魂會挑剔它，說它花哨、俗氣和廉價。但我喜歡它，它是精致和玫瑰色的，深色的條紋應有盡有，就像粉紅色百合上的虎紋。它是百合，而不是玫瑰；帶有虎紋的粉白色的百合。而且本身也很重，土質的，從大地升到空中：永遠不會忘卻黑暗的、黑色凶猛的大地—我認為這裏的人們有一刻是真實的，就像一棵開花的植物有一瞬間是完全真實的。然後它就消失了。就像佛羅倫薩一樣消失了。現在沒有花。但它已經開過花了。我不明白為什麽一個種族應該像一棵蘆薈樹，開了一次花就死掉。為什麽會這樣？為什麽不再開花？為什麽不呢？
（Sunlight, lovely full sunlight, lingered warm and still on the balcony. It caught the facade of the cathedral sideways, like the tips of a flower, and sideways lit up the stem of Giotto's tower, like a lily stem, or a long, lovely pale pink and white and green pistil of the lily of the cathedral. Florence, the flowery town. Firenze--Fiorenze--the flowery town: the red lilies. The Fiorentini, the flower-souled. Flowers with good roots in the mud and muck, as should be: and fearless blossoms in air, like the cathedral and the tower and the David.
"I love it," said Lilly. "I love this place, I love the cathedral and the tower. I love its pinkness and its paleness. The Gothic souls find fault with it, and say it is gimcrack and tawdry and cheap. But I love it, it is delicate and rosy, and the dark stripes are as they should be, like the tiger marks on a pink lily. It's a lily, not a rose; a pinky white lily with dark tigery marks. And heavy, too, in its own substance: earth-substance, risen from earth into the air: and never forgetting the dark, black-fierce earth--I reckon here men for a moment were themselves, as a plant in flower is for the moment completely itself. Then it goes off. As Florence has gone off. No flowers now. But it has flowered. And I don't see why a race should be like an aloe tree, flower once and die. Why should it? Why not flower again? Why not?"）
第二處：《瓢蟲》（Ladybird）裏的受傷的德國軍官普薩內克伯爵在一戰後期逗留於倫敦時，邂逅貴族女子達芙妮（Daphne），與她分享了自己的人生觀、愛情觀。他對達芙妮說：“不是你的如被采摘的百合般的身體。 我沒有為我的奢侈生活采過任何花。 但在寒冷的黑暗中，你的百合根，達芙妮夫人。 啊，是的，你這一生都會知道，我知道你的根埋在哪裏，帶著悲傷，生命的悲傷。 這有什麽關係！”（Not the white plucked lily of your body. I have gathered no flower for my ostentatious life. But in the cold dark, your lily root, Lady Daphne. Ah, yes, you will know it all your life, that I know where your root lies buried, with its sad, sad quick of life. What does it matter!）
很顯然，伯爵認為百合根才是生命力之所在。
第三處：1984年，勞倫斯生前並未完稿的小說《農先生》（MR. Noon）得以出版，第17章，吉爾伯特（Gilbert）在特裏爾小城的集市上看到農婦販賣新采摘的鈴蘭花束（lily of the valley），不禁浮想聯翩，認為“一個人應該像百合花一樣！ ——一個可愛的空靈存在？ 他的生活就像一朵百合花！ 他自己就是一朵百合花。 甚至不是一朵味道刺鼻的虎皮百合。 ”（Ought one to be like a lily! — a lovely ethereal presence? Much of a lily his life was! Much of a lily he was himself. Not even a rank tiger-lily.）“百合花！一朵 百合花在地底下有著凶猛纏結的根。 啊，在寒冷、恐怖的土壤裏，它的根在探索、戰鬥和吸吮。 他不想讓他的百合花成為被采摘的、一切都非常美好和美麗的百合。 不，老天啊，讓我們擁有一個整體吧：深沉的、難以言喻的激情的糾纏，向下噴射的欲望的狂暴！ 啊，鈴蘭在腐爛的草皮上掙紮扭動時，發生的所有可怕和難以形容的事情。 就在此時！ 他已經準備在靈魂的地下世界戰鬥、扭動和摔跤。 激情總是一場鬥爭，欲望總是一場衝突。 那麽，為戰鬥和衝突歡呼吧。 讓它永無止境，否則我們都會成為被采摘的花朵。 ”（Lily! A lily has a ferocious tangle of roots underearth. Ach, in the cold, horrible earth its roots probe and fight and suck. He didn’t want his lily a plucked blossom, all very nice and fair. No, good heaven, let us have the whole party: the tangle of deep, unspeakable passions, the rage of downward shooting desires! Ah, all the terrible and unspeakable things that happen to a lily of the valley as it wrestles and writhes in the corrosive sod. Right then! He was ready for the fight and writhing and wrestling in the soul’s underground. Passion is always a fight, desire is always a strife. Hurray then for the fight and the strife. Let it never end, or we are picked blossoms.）
（鈴蘭）
吉爾伯特接著想到，“他不想像其他有教養的文明人一樣，成為一朵被采摘的花朵。采摘的花朵，被困在一個美輪美奐的罐子裏：它們就在那裏，水變成死水然後腐爛掉。被采摘的花！無數芬芳的百合花——插在藍色的花瓶裏。該死的藍色花瓶裏的雌百合。他想要一朵深深紮根於泥土的百合，快速、緊握、得意地紮根在泥土裏。然後她可以枯萎和變老，卻不死。而那一朵被采摘的、宗教化的、精心栽培的百合卻不是這樣的，在一瓶腐爛的水裏隻枯萎一次卻永遠死去。” “不，他不會試圖將他的愛理想化。上帝拯救我們。我們在萌芽狀態時挑選它，並實現它的人生還原。他要在黑暗中，在地下，在潮濕、腐爛、刺鼻的泥土中與它搏鬥。泥土中的根萬歲！感謝上帝，這場戰鬥是永遠的。”
（he didn’t want to be a picked blossom, like the rest of cultured civilised people. Picked blossoms, stuck in a nice aesthetic jar: there they are, while the water goes stagnant and rots. Picked blossoms! Myriads of sweet lilies — in blue vases. Damn the female lilies in blue vases. He wanted a lily with her roots deep down in the muck, fast, gripped, triumphant rooted in the muck. Then she could wither and grow old, and yet not die. Unlike one of these picked, spiritual, cultured lilies, that wither once and for all in a vase of putrifying water. Pah.
No, he was not going to try and idealise his love. Heaven save us. We pick it in the bud, and achieve its undoing. He was going to wrestle with it in the dark, down under-ground, in the damp, rotting, pungent earth. Long live the roots in the muck! The fight, thank God, is for ever.）
勞倫斯的作品裏出現了不少性描寫，有人因此斥責他是淫穢作家，同時，某些人因為他對女性情感與內心世界的細致刻畫，讚揚他是婦女解放的擁護者和實踐者。我認為，他的內心世界還是傳統的，他把兩性關係喻為一朵帶根的花，隻希望女人做沉默於黑暗的地下的“根”，由男人（花朵）來發聲。他多次表達了這樣的觀念：女性若是闖入男性的世界，或被男性化，則會導致陰陽失調，造成現代社會的一個個災難性的悲劇。
他在某些作品裏含蓄地批判了過激的女權主義，但同時以極大的筆墨關注女性的生存狀況並探索她們走向幸福生活的道路，更多的時候，他扮演的是一個探索者的角色。
