The smell of an apple pie down on the street wafts through the air. Suddenly, the memory that your mum cooked in the kitchen after your school finished surges into your head. Or maybe it’s a whiff of a humid wind together with fresh grass that takes you back to a sunny spring trip. All our senses are connected to memories, though, odor in particular can bring us a rich flurry of memories from a long time ago, and their accompanying emotions. Nostalgia, some might say.
街上的苹果派的味道弥漫在空气中。 突然間，你放學后，你媽媽在廚房做飯的記憶湧上你的腦海。 或者也许是潮湿的风和新鲜的草一起，把你带回了阳光明媚的春天之旅。 然而，我们所有的感官都与记忆相连，特别是气味可以给我们带来很久以前的丰富记忆，以及随之而来的情绪。 有些人可能会说，怀旧。
When people consciously attempt to remember something, they focus on the senses’ details, says Dr. Ron Devere, director of the Taste and Smell Disorders Clinic, odor being the most efficient one.
味觉和嗅觉障碍诊所主任Ron Devere博士说，当人们有意识地试图记住某件事时，他们会关注感官的细节，气味是最有效的。
Such a magical assertion made me want to explore my lost memories. Therefore, I ended up in the Museum of Odor in Nanjing’s Jin’ao shopping mall, beginning my journey through the recollection of smell.
如此神奇的断言让我想探索我失去的记忆。 因此，我最终来到了南京金澳购物中心的气味博物馆，开始了我对气味的回忆之旅。
At first look, a big “味”character (smell) is seen hanging on the wall. As explained by the museum’s curator, odor does not have any shape, so imagination is key to help you feel it; magical that, when you focus on the smell, without other distractions, your imagination will always drag you into the past.
乍一看，墙上挂着一个大的“味”字。 正如博物馆策展人所解释的，气味没有任何形状，所以想象力是帮助你感受它的关键；神奇的是，当你专注于气味，而没有其他分心，你的想象力总是会把你拖入过去。
Herein, the exhibition is split by theme; normal odors that exist in daily life, but there are also the more abstract, named after a city or even a piece of classical music.
在此，展览按主题划分；日常生活中存在的正常气味，但也有更抽象的，以城市甚至一首古典音乐命名。
I first picked up that labelled “Baby Powder”. Once opened, I had this feeling that the white powder from Johnson & Johnson will puff all over my face. This is it. This is what I used when I was a little child after a shower in the summer. I enjoyed my mother putting the talcum powder all over my belly, giggling and rolling around when I got itchy. This baby powder is that which I miss most from my childhood, when I still had a physical bond with my parents. Now, it is harder and harder to connect with them; even a hug is rare for a Chinese family.
我首先拿起了标有“婴儿爽身粉”的。 一打开，我就有一种感觉，强生公司的白色粉末会喷到我的脸上。 就是这样。 这是我小时候夏天洗完澡后用的。 我喜欢我妈妈把滑石粉涂在我的肚子上，当我发痒时，她咯咯地笑，滚来滚去。 這個嬰兒爽身粉是我童年時最想念的，當時我和父母還有身體上的聯絡。 现在，与他们建立联系越来越难了；对于一个中国家庭来说，即使是拥抱也是罕见的。
The scent of “crayon” could hardly be considered pleasant, but the pungent and symbolic odor somehow becomes the incentive for primary students to attend school, or at least for me. Thinking of reciting one poem a day or calculating how many hours it will take for the tap to fill the sink while the water still goes down the drain are definitely huge pressures for a 10-year-old girl, but all we enjoyed the art classes that most teachers reckoned unnecessary. I still remember when we were told to imitate international football fans by drawing flags on our face using crayon. I painted the red Chinese flag over my eyes, taking inspiration from pandas. It impressed my teacher.
“蜡笔”的气味很难被认为是令人愉悦的，但辛辣和象征性的气味在某种程度上成为小学生上学的激励，或者至少对我来说。 对于一个10岁的女孩来说，每天背诵一首诗或计算水龙头装满水槽需要多少小时，这绝对是巨大的压力，但我们享受大多数老师认为没有必要的艺术课。 我还记得我们被告知要模仿国际足球迷，用蜡笔在脸上画旗帜。 我从熊猫中汲取灵感，在眼睛上画了中国红旗。 它给我的老师留下了深刻的印象。
“Dust”, as the name suggests, is that musty smell of old furniture and fabric. It reminds me of when my grandpa dusted the sewing machine; the dust rising into the air visible in the light of dusk. This is a relaxing smell that also provides for feelings of safety.
顾名思义，“灰尘”是旧家具和织物的霉味。 这让我想起了我爷爷在缝纫机上掸去灰尘的时候；在黄昏的灯光下，灰尘升到空气中。 這是一種令人放松的气味，也提供了安全感。
The smell makes you feel relaxed and safe, taking me back to an afternoon 10 years ago, when my mum tried to sew a pair of new sleeve protectors for me. I would try every means to distract her from making it, as that old-school stuff was the last thing I want to wear in front of my classmates. However, smart housewives figured they can prevent children from getting their new and light-coloured clothes dirty. Even now, I still see some students dressed as their parents decree; sleeve protectors retaining their priority in mothers’ minds. Few sewing machines can be found in families today.
气味让你感到放松和安全，把我带回了10年前的一个下午，当时我妈妈试图为我缝制一双新的袖子保护器。 我会尽一切办法分散她的注意力，因为那些老式的东西是我最不想在同学面前穿的东西。 然而，聪明的家庭主妇认为她们可以防止孩子们弄脏他们的浅色新衣服。 即使是现在，我仍然看到一些学生穿着父母的命令；袖子保护者在母亲的心目中保留着他们的优先权。 如今，家庭中很少有缝纫机。
A woman can be read by her scent; the odor “Dan” represents the leading female role in opera and is found in this collection of Beijing opera’s five character categories, namely “Sheng” (生), “Dan” (旦), “Jing” (净), “Mo” (末) and “Chou” (丑). Yang Guifei in “The Drunken Concubine”, Yu Ji in “Farewell my Concubine” and the legend Mulan are the most representative Dan characters. This odor of white tea is inhaled in the beginning, sweet and light, then becoming a little bitter, just as in the life journey of an elegant lady; the slightly astringent odor being the sediment of time and experience, with a bitter interlude, with the sweetness returning when they finally grow mature.
女人可以通过她的气味来解读；气味“丹”代表了歌剧中女主角，在京剧的五个角色类别中可以找到，即“生”、“旦”、“净”、“末”和“丑”。 《醉酒妃子》中的杨桂菲、《再见我的妃子》中的余姬和传说《花木兰》是丹最具代表性的角色。 这种白茶的气味一开始被吸入，又甜又轻，然后变得有点苦，就像一位优雅的女士的人生旅程一样；略带涩的气味是时间和经验的沉淀物，带有苦涩的插曲，当它们最终成熟时，甜味又回来了。
Now I do understand the joy of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in “Scent of a Woman”, picturing different people and scenery according to various smells, travelling back in time.
现在我确实理解了弗兰克·斯莱德中校在《女人的气味》中的喜悦，根据各种气味想象不同的人和风景，回到时间。
Donald Laird, Director of Psychology Laboratory, Colgate University, New York, researched the connection between autobiographical memory and odor. One of the participants therein said, “When you see something, it also helps you to recall some facts, but they would soon become vague and invisible memories. However, the memory triggered by smell is unavoidable, I did not make any effort to recall it. It seems not merely a memory, but, me turning back to that world, becoming the me from that moment”.
纽约高露洁大学心理学实验室主任Donald Laird研究了自传记忆和气味之间的联系。 其中一位参与者说：“当你看到某件事时，它也有助于你回忆起一些事实，但它们很快就会变成模糊和看不见的记忆。 然而，由气味引发的记忆是不可避免的，我没有做出任何努力去回忆它。 这似乎不仅仅是一段记忆，而是我回到那个世界，从那一刻起成为我。”
Meanwhile, Dr. Ken Heilman, James E. Rooks Jr. Distinguished Professor Neurology and Health Psychology at the University of Florida, has commented, “Smell goes into the emotional parts of the brain and the memory parts, whereas words go into thinking parts of the brain”.
与此同时，Ken Heilman博士，James E. Rooks Jr. 佛罗里达大学神经学和健康心理学的杰出教授评论道：“气理进入大脑的情感部分和记忆部分，而文字进入大脑的思考部分。”
Smell can be more powerful than words sometimes, certainly in terms of memory, like riding in a time machine with smell as the key in the ignition. We may forget another’s promise, but smell will promise to take us back to that moment.
气味有时可能比语言更强大，当然在记忆方面，就像乘坐时间机器，气味是点火的关键。 我们可能会忘记别人的承诺，但气味会承诺带我们回到那个时刻。
