拖不死的穷汉子
Poor man not dragged to death
天阴下雨，天色墨黑。
It was cloudy and rainy, and the sky was black.
天还没亮，周兴和打着火把，背着草药背篼，沿着下山的那条泥泞小路，跌跌绊绊朝三元乡街上走去——他要趁天还没亮，把这几天扯的草药背到场上卖了，再赶回队里上班。
Before dawn, Zhou Xinghe, with a torch and a basket of herbs on his back, hobbled down the dirt road to the street of Sanyuan Village - carrying a basket of herbs on his back, he had to sell them on the fair and came back to work in the team before dawn.
分家后，15岁的周兴和就独自承担起生儿育女、养家糊口的家庭责任来。15岁，如果按照年龄段来分，他还只是个少年；而今，城里像他那个年龄段的少年，说不定还在父母面前撒娇，动不动还要威胁父母离家出走，让父母打着灯笼遍天下去找呢！
After dividing their family property, Zhou Xinghe, 15 years old, took on the responsibility of raising children and supporting the family alone. At 15 years old, he would be a teenager just according to the age; nowadays, the urban teenager in his age, may just act coquettishly in front of his parents, or threaten his parents by running away from home, and let the parents to find hime all over the world!
那时的农村人，除了上班挣工分，是没有任何经济来源的。要想搞点副业，那是“资本主义尾巴”，是要被割掉的。同时，队的规定也不近人情，一户人家只能养一只鸡，一个人只能在自留地里种一窝菜。外出打工吧，不但无工可打，说不定还要把你当成“流窜犯”给抓起来；就是扯点草药卖几个鸡蛋，也会说你不务正业，搞投机倒把走资本主义，没收你的东西不说，还要挨批斗。
At that time, the rural people, in addition to work to earn the workpoints, had no other source of income. If you wanted to have a bywork, it's the "tail of capitalism", which shall be cut off. At the same time, the rules of the production team were also inhuman, that a family can only keep one chicken, and a person can only plant a vegetable in their own private plot. Going out to work, there had no work to do, instead you may be arrested as a "criminal on the run"; even if you just digged herbs or sold a few eggs, you would be accused of not attending to your proper duties, speculating or taking the capitalism way, so your goods would be confiscated and you shall be criticized.
但，一家人总要活下去呀！为了活命，周兴和顾不到那么多了，他必须要冒着风险千方百计养活一家人。
However, the family must survive! In order to survive, Zhou Xinghe could not consider so much. He had to take risks and try his best to support his family.
在妻子给他生下大女儿之后，接着几年，又给他生下二女一男。到周兴和23岁时，他已经是4个儿女的父亲了。这时，一家人不说其它，就是吃饭的嘴，联起来就有一尺长；这一家人在当时的境况下要生存下去，不被饿死冻死，就是难以想象的了。那些年，尽管周兴和和妻子没日没夜拼命地干，但还是一穷二白入不敷出，穷得有时连买斤盐巴、打斤煤油的钱也拿不出来。有好长一段时间，家里点不起煤油灯，一个屋里黑咕隆咚的，天一擦黑，一家人就只能窝在床上。
A few years after his wife gave birth to his eldest daughter, she gave birth to two more girls and a boy. By the time Zhou Xinghe was 23 years old, he was the father of four children. At this time, not to mention anything else, only the mouths of the family connected together was over one foot long; it was inconceivable that the family could survive in the circumstances of that time without dying of starvation or freezing to death. In those years, although Zhou Xinghe and his wife worked hard day and night, they were so poor that they could not make ends meet. Sometimes, they could not even afford to buy the salt or kerosene. For a long time, the family could not afford to light a kerosene lamp, so the house was so dark that one family had to stay in bed when getting dark.
熬吧，熬！
Carry on!
那时，他们全家人有一半的时间是吃两顿饭。所谓“饭”，其实吃的大多是猪食一样的东西。即便有点粮食，每次煮饭时只能在红苕叶或牛皮菜上撒上把包谷面或麦麸子。那时，他们全家6口人，10斤包谷面要吃20多天。兴和深刻地记得，1970年过春节时，大年三十中午，他全家人就煮了一顿油稀饭，大人小孩算是开了个荤，算是过了年！
At that time, the whole family only ate two meals a day. The so-called "meal", in fact, was mostly like things as the pigswill. Even if there was a little grain, it can only scatter little corn flour or wheet bran on the leaves of sweet potato or chard. At that time, his family had 6 people, and 5kg of grains could be eaten for more than 20 days. Xinghe deeply remembered that in the Spring Festival of 1970, at noon of the Chinese New Year's Eve, his whole family cooked a meal of porridge with lard oil, so the adults and children had a meat diet, to celebrate the new year!
辛酸苦楚，往事不堪回首！
Bitter past finds it unbearable to recall!
那时，大人小孩更没有衣服穿。他们连2角8分钱一尺的粗布也买不起，即使买回几尺，也只能用坡上一种叫“狗地牙根”的植物染上颜色，然后自己缝成衣裳穿。因为周兴和要出门赶场、上坡出工，不能光着身子，他一条粗布裤子穿了3年，疤上补疤达5层之厚；出门没鞋穿，他只好打光脚板，连6角钱一双用车轮胎做底的草鞋也买不起。周兴和如此，更不要说几个幼小的孩子了。
At that time, the adults and children even had no clothes to wear. They could not afford the coarse cloth of twenty-eight cents per foot, and even if they bought a few feet of cloth, they had to dye them with a plant called "dog teeth root", and sew them into shirts and trousers. Because Zhou Xinghe had to go out to the fair and go up the hill to work, he could not go naked. He had worn a pair of coarse-cloth trousers for three years, and there were five layers of patch on them. When he went out, there were no shoes, so he had to bare his feet and couldn't even afford a pair of straw sandals of tire sole for sixty cents. Even Zhou Xinghe was like so, not to mention his young children.
“嫂子，那个时候，你们家里的几个孩子都还小，哪个帮你们照看呢？”采访时，笔者突然想到这个问题，问王琼华。
"Ms. Wang, at that time, the children of your family were still young, who help you look after them?" During the interview, the author suddenly thought of this question and asked Wang Qionghua.
“哪里有人照看哟！……”王琼华原本是个豁达的人，但问到这个问题，她却面露悲切之色，声音明显低沉下来，“那个时候，我和兴和都要上坡做活路，只是收了工回家煮点东西给几个娃儿吃。家里面就是大的照看小的，这些娃儿不管一岁半岁，都是自己在地上爬，只要不摔进粪坑、堰塘里淹死就行了……”
'There's noone to look after them! ..." Wang Qionghua was originally an open-minded person, but when she was asked about this question, she looked sad and her voice was obviously deep down. "At that time, Xinghe and I both had to go uphill to make a living. We just returned home after work and cooked something for the children to eat. When they were at home without adults, the bigger children shall take care of the smaller ones; no matter they were one year old or just half a year old, they just crawled on the ground, as long as they did not fall into the cesspit or pond to drown..."
家里实在太穷了，他们生下小儿子后，夫妻俩不得不忍痛将最小的女儿抱养给了别人。
The family was so poor that when they gave birth to their youngest son, the couple reluctantly gave up their youngest daughter to other family.
“是啊，那时候有些事，简直不愿再去回想。”周兴和听了我采访他前妻的情况，他声色沉重地对笔者说道，“那时最要命的是没有吃的。几个孩子太小，饿得哇哇乱叫。我每次回到家，看到几个孩子像饥饿的狼崽一样，几双绿莹莹的眼睛都可怜巴巴地盯住你，那心头才不是滋味哪……我不能让孩子们饿死！实在没有办法了，就是上坡去偷！偷红苕、偷包谷、偷蔬菜，只要能吃的都偷回家，半夜煮给娃儿吃。前次我回老家，我对村里的干部说，我是用偷来的东西把娃儿喂大的……村干部说，其实那时为了活命，哪家哪户没偷过呀！”
"There were things in those days that I just don't want to think back." After listening to my interview with his ex-wife, Zhou Xinghe said to me with a heavy tone, "The most serious thing at that time was that there was no food. The children were so small that they howled with hunger. Every time coming home, I saw the children were as hungry as the wolf cubs, a few pairs of green eyes piteously staring at you, and my heart was so ached... I can't let the children starve! There was no other way, but to steal up the hill! To steal the sweet potato, corn, or vegetables, anything can eat shall be stolen home, and cooked at midnight to feed the children. The last time I went back to my hometown, I told the village officials that I had fed the baby with stolen goods... Village cadre said, actually at that time in order to live, almost every family had stolen something!"
马瘦毛长，人穷志短。那时，无论是在生产队里，还是走亲访友，贫穷透顶的周兴和不是被人看不起，就是受到人家的嘲笑和奚落。
When a man is poor, his ambition is not far-reaching. At that time, whether working in the production team or visiting the relatives, the extremely poor Zhou Xinghe was looked down or laughed at by others.
走着瞧吧！三十年河东，三十年河西。周兴和尽管是个穷得叮当响的人，但他又是一个自尊心自信心极强的人。一次他和妻子带着儿女去探访他岳父母，嫌贫爱富的大舅子不但冷落他们，还当着众人的面挖苦和奚落他。当他得知大舅子明里暗里还在给王琼华物色介绍对象后，他气得脸色发青，发誓再不跨进王家一步！
We'll see! It’s capricious in rise and fall. Although Zhou Xinghe was a poor man, he was also a man with strong self-esteem and self-confidence. Once he and his wife took their children to visit his parents-in-law, their brother-in-law despising the poor and currying favor with the rich not only ignored them, but also mocked and ridiculed him in public. When he learned that the brother-in-law still secretly introduced other men for Wang Qionghua, his face was green with anger, and he vowed not to step into the Wang family again!
为了养活家人，从1968年至1979年期间，周兴和除了生产队的规定每个月必须劳动26天外，完全是靠一早一晚赶集做点小生意，每次做生意要经过中山村2组，那里有个神秘的山洞，听老年人说那里面住着财神老爷，周兴和回忆他每次做完生意回来，总是要到那里去上贡。说来也奇怪，大部分时间上贡后总会多赚几毛一块钱。久而久之，到至今周兴和回老家总会到那里去烧炷香许个愿。
To feed the family, from 1968 to 1979, in addition to completing the work of 26 days per month in the production team, Zhou Xinghe did some small business on the fair early in the morning or late at night; every time to the fair, he went by Group 2 of Zhongshan Village, and there was a mysterious cave; hearing from the rumor that there lived the god of wealth, Zhou Xinghe remembered that every time he came back, he would go to the cave to paya tribute. Oddly enough, in most of the time, he earned a little more after paying tribute. Over time, until now, Zhou Xinghe always went there to burn a joss stick to make a wish.
为了能还清债务，周兴和顽强地与自己的命运抗争着。此间，他先后种过蓑草，挖过草药，还悄悄拿到街上去卖，并将从父亲那里学到的一点医药知识，替人诊断治病。此外，他还冒着风险偷偷做点小生意，无论粮票布票，无论小鸡小猪，只要能赚钱的生意他就做。
In order to pay off the debt, Zhou Xinghe tenaciously fought against his own fate. He had planted the demoiselle, dug up some herbs, and quietly sold them in the fair. He would also diagnose and cure others with the herbal knowledge he had learned from his father. Besides, at his own risk, he ran a small business on the sly, doing whatever he could to make money, whether it was food stamps or cloth stamps, chickens or pigs.
为此，他被当地“群专组织”和公社革委会视为“走资本主义的毒苗”、“屡教不改的投机倒把分子”，他的钱财和物品经常被没收，还3次被挂黑牌批斗，甚至游街示众，使他一度在家乡臭名远扬，有家难归。
Thus, the local "mass organization" and the revolutionary committee of the commune took him as "the poison seedling of capitalism", and "repeated speculation profiteer", and his money and goods were often confiscated, and he was also criticized for three times with the black sign, or even paraded through the streets, so that he was once notorious in his hometown, and had a family hard to return.
苦难的日子似乎没有尽头。1976年大年十五，周兴和的父亲在三元乡赶场卖草药回来，搭人板车回家，不慎从车上滚了下来，摔断了腿骨。由于也是无钱送医院，把他背回家后，用草药敷了敷骨折的地方，再用竹片固定起来。父亲也像他母亲一样，这时也只能躺在床上拖！
The days of misery seemed to have no end. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of 1976, Zhou Xinghe's father came back from selling herbal medicines in Sanyuan Village. He got on a plate trailer to go home. Accidently, he fell out and broke his leg. As Xinghe also had no money to send him to the hospital, Xinghe carried him home, applied herbal medicine to the fracture, and fixed it with bamboo pieces. His father, like his mother, could only lay on the bed and drag on!
周兴和含泪望着在伤痛折磨下的父亲，他除了内心的焦急和悲痛，是束手无策一筹莫展。家里实在是太穷了！嗷嗷待乳的儿女，伤痛折磨得皮包骨头的父亲，他谁也割舍不下呀！他只能在自己每天8两粮食中剩下4两，熬成稀饭送到父亲面前，一口口喂给父亲。那在伤痛中痛苦呻吟的父亲，拖了不到一个月，呻吟的声音越来越小，到最后眼睛一闭，也走了。父亲走时76岁。
Zhou Xinghe looked at his father with tears in his eyes. He could do nothing but worry and sorrow in his heart. How poor my family was! The children crying piteously for food, and the skinny father suffering from the pain, he could not give up! He could only take half of his ration, cook and feed porridge for his father. The father groaned in pain for less than a month. His groaning became less and less. At last he closed his eyes and passed away. The father was seventy-six years old when he left.
“现在，每当我想起母亲和父亲临死时的惨况，我的心里就在流血啊，当儿子的我，太无能了！……”周兴和每当提到他的父母亲，他都自责不已伤痛不已。
"Now, whenever I think of my mother and my father dying, my heart bleeds, and I, as a son, am so powerless! ..." Every time Zhou Xinghe mentioned his parents, he was filled with remorse and pain.
山路依然泥泞，天色依然黢黑。走了一段路，火把燃尽熄灭了。周兴和背着草药背篼，摸索着往山下走去。这路实在是太难走了，曲里拐弯又窄又滑，烂泥时常遮盖脚背，兴和摔了好几跤，才走到魏河边上。但，天太早，过河船锁靠在河边，推船的人还没起来。周兴和看了看天色，唯恐上班前赶不回来，他脱掉满是泥巴的衣裤装在背篼里，两手举着背篼，就直接蹚水过河了。
The mountain roads were still muddy and the sky was still dark. After walking for a while, the torch burned out. Zhou Xinghe groped down the hill with his basket of herbs on his back. The road was very hard to walk on. The corners were narrow and slippery, and the mud often covered the back of his feet. Xinghe had several falls before he reached Weihe River. However, it was too early, the boat was locked on the bank, and the people pushing the boat had not come to work. Zhou Xinghe looked at the sky and, and feared that he would not be back before going to work, so he took off his muddy clothes and pants, put in his basket, held his basket above head in his hands, and waded straight across the river.
像这样蹚水过河的次数，兴和已经记不得有多少次了。
He could not remember how many times he had waded across the river like this.
时值初春，河水冰凉刺骨。兴和下水一步一步往河对岸走去，河水慢慢淹到肚皮，淹到胸口，尽管他咬紧牙关，但冰冷的河水还是像刀一样割着他的全身，他冷得牙齿敲着牙齿。好不容易，他才爬上河岸。一上岸，他全身抖瑟着，顾不得满身水渍，赶紧穿上衣裳朝坡上爬去。
It was the early spring, and the water was freezing. He waded to the other bank of the river, the water slowly flooded his belly and chest, and though he clenched his teeth, the cold water stimulated him like a knife, and his teeth chattered for the cold. Difficultly, he climbed up the bank. As soon as he got on the bank, he was shaking all over. Regardless of the water, he quickly put on his clothes and climbed up the slope.
上了坡，周兴和回过头去，晨光初现，江天寂寥，风寒露冷。河对岸那条泥泞的小路，在山间渐渐隐现出来；冰冷刺骨的魏河，在晨曦中泛着幽幽的微光。看着眼前的一切，莫名其妙，一个从未有过的念头突然从他心底里顽强地冒了出来——等着吧，如果我周兴和这辈子有时来运转的那一天，老子发誓，一定要在这河上修座大桥，把公路修到河对面家家户户门口去！
After climbing up the slope, Zhou Xinghe turned around. The morning light was just beginning. The river was lonely, the wind was cold and the dew was also cold. The muddy road on the other side of the river appeared over the hills; the icy Weihe River glimmered in the early morning light. Looking at everything in front of him, a thought that had never occurred to him before suddenly emerged from his mind tenaciously for no reason - just wait and see, if I Zhou Xinghe have fortune one day, I vowed to build a bridge across the river and build roads to the doors of every house across the river!
这个压不垮拖不死的穷汉子，他的这个念头，到底是白日做梦，还是痴心妄想？
Was this idea of this poor man, who could not be crushed or dragged to death, a daydream or wishful thinking?
