散文佳作108篇 第52期:擷自那片芳洲的清供 An Offering from His Sweet Homeland

擷自那片芳洲的清供

An Offering from His Sweet Homeland

賈寶泉

Jia Baoquan

探家歸來，他左手提著旅行包，右手擎著盛了大半清水、插了一束嫩綠柳枝的玻璃瓶，在街上緩緩地走著。這時(shí)，輕風(fēng)拂面，涼雨漫灑，叫人憂傷……

Returning from a visit to his hometown, he walked slowly alorig the streetina chilly drizzling rain,a travelling bag in his left hand, and in his right handa half-filled glass water bottle with a bunchof green tender willow twigs stuck in it. A light wind touching his face called for painfulmemories of the past...

當(dāng)時(shí)，爸爸媽媽深翻土地去了，據(jù)說土地挖到五尺深，就能打下萬斤糧。一尺深就是2，000斤啊!為了這“一本萬利”的大事業(yè)，他們經(jīng)常是十多天才回一趟家。.這樣，照料幼小的他的活務(wù)，就落在了14歲小姐姐嫩弱的肩上……

Those were the days when Father and Mother went deep-ploughing in the fields. They were toldthat when the earth was ploughed five feet deep, the grain yield per mu would reach tenthousand jin. Simply digging one foot down would amount to two thousand jin of grain! Busywith such a "highly profitable" significant job, they could come back home only once in morethan ten days. The task of taking care of him thus fell upon the limp shoul-ders of his 14-year-old sister.

他肚子像著了火，熱辣辣地難受，在炕上打滾哭鬧：“我餓，我睡不著呀!”

His stomach was aching as if catching fire; he rolled back and forth on the kang crying out loud, "I am so hungry. I can't sleep!"

躺在他身邊的姐姐連忙坐起來，伸手將他托到自己腿上，小聲地唱著：

His sister who lay beside him sat up at once. Resting him on her legs, shesang to him soffly:

小弟弟，好寶寶，小弟弟，快睡覺。

Little Brother, good baby,Little Brother, sleep well.

天大亮了。沒有葦席的土炕上，空落落地躺著他一個人，他急得大哭大喊：“媽，姐姐--”

It was broad daylight when he woke up to find himself alone on the matlesskang. He screamedwith fear, "Mum! Sister-"

“小弟，我在這兒哩，快來呀!”他循著姐姐的聲音，赤腳光腚跑出屋門，只見院子中央的那棵大柳樹下，支著一根頂門棍，姐姐正踮起腳跟站在木棍的頂端上，左手抓著一根樹權(quán)權(quán)，右手向一簇掛滿了柳芽的柳枝伸去。由于個子矮，怎么也夠不著。她忽然猛地向上一躍，撲向那柳枝。倏然間，就跌倒在地上了，手里卻還緊緊攥著那簇柳枝。

"Little Brother, I am here. Come over here quickly!"Following the voice of his sister, he ran outof the room, his feet and bottom all bare. It was under the big willow tree in the middle of thecourtyard that he found his sister standing on her toes on the top end of a door-proppingstick being leaned against the tree. Her left hand seized hold of a branch while her right handwas stretching for a cluster of twigs prospering with buds. But she was too small to reachthem. Then she suddenly jumped up in an attempt to get at them. Before he realized what hadhappened, she fell on the ground, but with a firm grip of those twigs in her hand.

“姐--”，他連滾帶爬地?fù)溥^去。姐姐躺在地上，慢慢睜開了眼睛，朝他笑了。她的右眼角上方在滴血。他跑到墻根尋來極細(xì)極細(xì)的土末末，撤在姐姐的傷口上止住了血。姐姐兩手撐地坐起來，把柳枝上的嫩芽一個個小心摘下，放進(jìn)一個盛著清水的瓦盆里，然后兩只手就在盆里不停地揉捏，不一會兒，清凌凌的水就給染上了濃重的翡翠色。姐姐又換了一盆清水，繼續(xù)揉捏著，直到盆里的水不再變綠，才將柳芽撈出來，捏成一個拳頭大小的團(tuán)子，遞到他的手里。

"Sister-"he threw himself upon her. Slowly she opened her eyes and smiledat him, when hespotted a bleeding cut above her right eye-corner. At the foot of the wall, he swiffly collected apinch of very fine dust and sprinkled it on the cut. It stopped bleeding. Sister propped herselfup with both hands. She carefully stripped all the buds off the willow twigs and put them in anearthen pot filled with clean water. Then she kept squashing and rubbing them between herfingers; soon the water was dyed a thick emerald green. She replaced it with another pot ofclean water and repeated her action untilthe water no longer changed its color. Scooping up thebuds and kneading them into a ball no bigger than a fist, she handed it to him.

“哈哈哈，好小弟，快吃呀!吃了肚子就不唱大戲了。”

"Aha, my good brother. Now eat it and your stomach will not make any noise again."

他一把奪過來就吃，淡淡的清苦味中，竟有一股甜絲絲的味道。

He grabbed it and gobbled it up. It even tasted somewhat sweet mingled with a slightbitterness.

深挖土地的鏖戰(zhàn)還在進(jìn)行，姐姐就病了。開始只說是脖子疼，后來脖子上暴起了又粗又紅的筋，那破了的地方還流出黃粘的汁液。

The deep-ploughing battle was still on when Sister fellill. Initially, she felt apain on her neck;then reddish thick veins popped out along her neck, with ulcers oozing thick yellow mucus.

那天一早，一輛古老的獨(dú)輪車推著姐姐和他走上了村頭那條彎彎曲曲的蛋黃色小路。中午時(shí)分，他們找到了那家全縣最大的醫(yī)院，誰知醫(yī)生們也都參加中心任務(wù)去了，值班的小阿姨根本沒有見過姐姐得的這種病。獨(dú)輪車又順著來時(shí)的路返回了。

That morning saw an ancient one-wheeled pushcart, with both his sister andhim sitting on it,rolling along the yolk-yellow winding path stretching awayfrom the end of the village. At noontime, they arrived at the biggest hospitalin town. Who would have thought that all the doctorswere away to partici-pate in the "central tasks" of the time! The young nurse on duty had neverseen such a case before. The cart rolled back following the same route it came in the moming.

以后，就請鄉(xiāng)下的土醫(yī)生給姐姐治病。他們不用任何麻醉藥拿一把明晃晃的刀子在姐姐脖子上割治。姐姐不哭，實(shí)在忍不住才哼一聲。她用手緊緊抓著他的胳臂，指甲摳進(jìn)他的肉里。土醫(yī)生們吃喝一頓走了，卻沒有把姐姐的病帶走。

Then some local medical men were called in. They performed an operation on Sister's neck witha dazzling knife without using anesthetic. She refused to cry, only uttering a groan at themost unbearable moment, her hand clutch-ing his arm, her nails digging into his flesh. The menleft after a big dinner, but they did not take away Sister's disease.

他守在姐姐身邊，給她端開水，倒便盆。她的病越來越重，身子越來越虛，一小碗開水分幾次喝，還累得直喘氣。想睡，脖子疼得不能合眼。

He stayed close by to look after her, bringing in drinking water and carrying away the bedpan.Nevertheless, she was getting weaker and weaker, so feeble that she even had to stop severaltimes to gasp for breath when drinking a small bowl of water. She wanted to sleep, but thepain in the neck was too gnawing to let her close her eyes.

那天，她示意他走過去，摸住了他的手。

One day, she motioned him to come over and held his hand"

“人死了……還吃……吃飯嗎?”昏昏迷迷中，姐姐像是問他，又像是問自己。

When...people die, do...they...eat?" she asked half-consciously,it was hardto tell whether shewas asking him or herself.

他不點(diǎn)頭，也不搖頭，四顧茫然地瞪大了眼睛。

He did not nod, nor did he shake his head, his eyes wide opert staring aroundvacantly.

她忽然長了精神，眼睛也亮起來了，臉上有了紅暈，說話也不那么氣喘了。他想，姐姐這下可好了。

Suddenly, her spirit seemed to come back to her: her eyes shone, her cheeks flushed, and sheno longer panted when she spoke. She's getting better now,he thought.

“……吃啥呢……”

"...what to eat..."

他依舊不點(diǎn)頭，不搖頭，只是昕到說“吃”，忙說：“吃柳芽，我給你摘好多柳芽。”

He was still motionless, but upon hearing the word "eat," he answered, "Hawillow buds. I'll pickup a lot of willow buds for you.

她的眉舒展了，帶著一絲不易覺察的笑，慢慢地松開了手，眼睛雖然還看著她，卻沒有了往日的晶亮的閃耀。

"Her brows smoothed, and, with a smile that could hardly be deteaed, sheslowly loosened herhand. Her eyes still watched him, but lacked their usualluster.

她走了，帶著小弟無意中的一句安慰，心滿意足地永遠(yuǎn)地去，他那時(shí)雖然年歲還小，卻沒有忘記自己許諾過的，在姐姐唇邊放了幾枚枯黃的柳葉。

She was gone; she left forever satisfied with a word of comfort uttered unin-tentionally by herlittle brother. Though he was young at the time, he did not forget his promise. He put afewwithered willow leaves on Sister's lips.

過了些時(shí)日，他提得動水桶，也扛得動鐵锨了，就在姐姐的墳頭上種了棵小柳樹，三天兩頭澆水，施肥，沒事就圍著它看。不久，他上學(xué)了。

As time advanced, he was old enough to be able to carry a bucket and to usea shovel. Heplanted a small willow tree on his sister's grave and came al-most every day to see it and totake care of it. Before long, he went to school.

望著瓶里的那束柳枝，他心里默默地訴說著：

Gazing upon the willow twigs in the bottle, he poured out his heart silently to his sister:

“姐姐：你百般寶愛的小弟，已經(jīng)是人民解放軍的一名團(tuán)級指揮員了。這次回鄉(xiāng)省親，愉悅慈顏，又到你的墳上去了。這束柳枝就是從那樹上采來的，它將作為你的照片，你的雕像，供置于我的案頭。

“姐姐：雙親雖然年逾古稀，體格尚好。娘對我說：可憐你姐她沒有熬過來。這會兒吃啥?別說是啥柳芽子，黃燦燦的玉米面都喂雞了。’……”

"My dear sister, your dearly beloved little brother is now a P.L.A. regimen-tal officer. I went toyour grave again when I returned to our village recentlyto see our parents. This is a bunch ofbranches Ipicked up from that willowtree. I'II take it as your picture, as your statue, and place itas an offering toyou on my desk. "Dear Sister, our parents are now over 70, in fairly goodhealth for their age. Mother said to me, 'It's a pity that your sister did not drag throughthosehard years. See what we eat today? We even feed the chickens with goldencorn flour, notto mention willow buds..."

前面就是他的住所了。他一邊回思著那段回彎曲折的歷史，一邊極小心地用腳試探著凸凹不平的路面，他想起曲折的路心里就酸楚得難以自抑，雖然他并不是不知道，世界總是在曲折中前進(jìn)的…

Ahead of him was his house. As his feet carefully probed the uneven srufaceof the road, hismind kept pondering on that part of history, a tortuous paththey had gone by. He could nothelp feeling grief, even with an awarenessthat history never foUowed a straight forwardcourse...