作品原文

宗利华 《绿豆》

继高粱、荞麦之后，粮仓的第三个闺女，绿豆，在一个日光辉煌的午后不盼而至。
当时，粮仓正弓在地里，挥汗如雨。有人吆喝，粮仓，粮仓，你老婆生了！粮仓就握了一把绿豆气势磅礴往家奔。进门，便闻听惊天动地一声哭。接生婆二寡妇荡着两支小脚出来，说恭喜呀粮仓，又是千金。
粮仓就戳在当地，骂，操！
就取个名儿，叫绿豆。
绿豆能哭，哭起来不住点。粮仓烦躁，将粘粥碗一掷，吼，哭，哭，能把你娘的腚沟里哭出个茶壶嘴儿来？
当时，计划生育形势已经相当严峻。老婆目睹村人被罚得连炒菜锅也没有了之后，与粮仓商议，要不，咱去结扎？
粮仓面冲门外，半截腚却在门框里。半天，笼起一团烟来，叹气，啥人啥命。
粮仓便有一个宏伟计划在脑壳里成型。
粮仓要把绿豆培养成个养老的孩子。也就是说，粮仓把养老女婿的指标分给了绿豆。
就常见这么一幕父女对话的动人情景。
绿豆是好孩子不？是。绿豆长大了干啥？伺候爹娘。招个养老女婿干啥？给爹打酒喝，粮仓的脸蹙成核桃状，写满惬意。绿豆格格地笑，一脸无邪。
绿豆在成长过程中淋漓尽致地体现出其抗恶劣气候的能力，尽管是粗衣粗饭，一株绿豆还是长得跟钻天杨似地。绿豆成了庄户地里一把好手，推车挑担，不压于男劳力。一帮混小子就暗地里捉摸。啧啧，不知道谁能放倒她。
放到绿豆的工作很快就由一个外村的小青年完成了。绿豆否决了粮仓给她安排的一系列婆家之后，自由恋爱了。
小青年是独苗，显然，不适合干养老女婿。让粮仓头疼的是，绿豆也不愿让青年做上门婿。
于是，粮仓和绿豆展开持久战。
先，粮仓挥起烧火棍，直击绿豆背部，嗵得一声响，被硬硬地弹起，粮仓登时泪满眼眶。骂，他娘的，你咋不躲，你咋不躲呢？
粮仓在那一刻大悟，姑娘大了，岂能打得？
于是，粮仓蒙被卧炕，绝食。绿豆不劝，顿顿调制香喷喷菜肴二三盘，置于炕头，再温一壶酒。首日，粮仓不动，绿豆当其面狼吞虎咽，消灭之。次日，又如此。三日，粮仓鱼跃而起，娘的，好人还能让尿憋死？
绿豆与娘隔窗嘿嘿而笑。
绿豆终于出嫁，视公婆为亲父母，且小两口甩开膀子干，不几年功夫，一摆溜儿红砖红瓦房拔地而起。
一日，绿豆说，该把俺爹俺娘接来了。
男人问，那跟养老女婿有啥区别？
绿豆一瞪眼，有啥区别你还不清楚？叫你去你就去，胡罗嗦个啥？
男人一笑，跟你闹着玩呢。就把粮仓老两口接来了。顺便还打了一桶散装白酒。
男人知道，老丈人最喜的就是闲空儿抿点小酒。

作品译文

Mung Bean
Zong Lihua

On a sunny afternoon, joining her two elder sisters, Sorghum and Buckwheat, a girl was unexpectedly born into Granary's family.
Bending close to the soil, the father, soaked with sweat, was busy working when somebody started shouting to him, "Granary, Granary, your wife is in labor now." A handful of mung beans in hand, Granary rushed home like a tornado. Hardly had he stepped through the front door when he heard an unearthly cry. The midwife Second Widow, who held a baby with too tiny feet dangling in the air, came out and said, "Congratulations! It's another girl, Granary."
"F—k," Granary cursed, without moving his feet.
He named her Mung bean.
Mung Bean cried a lot, and she would cry non-stop. The annoyed Granary once flung his millet porridge bowl on the table, yelling, "Crying and crying! But can you cry a teapot spout out of your damned butts for me?"
The situation facing people who had broken the family-planning rules was grave. Witnessing heavily fined violators losing even their cooking utensils, Granary's wife suggested to him, "I may as well go for a tubal ligation, what do you think?"
Looking out, Granary sat on the threshold that divided his buttocks into two. After a long silence, when he had blown out a cloud of smoke, he sighed. "All right. Every man has his life!"
Inside Granary's head an ambitious plan was then conceived. He was going to bring Mung Bean up to be a child who could provide for her parents. In other words, he had assigned the task of son-in-law to Mung Bean.
And the following is a commonly heard touching dialogue between father and daughter:
"Mung Bean is a good child, isn't she?"
"Yes."
"What should she do when she grows up?"
"Look after her parents."
"Why would Dad find a husband for her and keep him home?"
"To buy wine for Dad."
He would tighten his face to the shape of a peach, looking very pleased, while innocent Mung Bean giggled.
Mung Bean's growing up fully demonstrated the bean's true ability to resist drought, to stand vile weather. Though she was raised with simple food and cheap clothing, Mung Bean grew like a Lombardy poplar and turned out to be an outstanding peasant. She could push carts and carry heavy loads, just like an able man. Then a few men, all charlatans, secretly worked out a scheme. "Who will be the one to subdue her?"
The job of subduing Mung Bean was soon undertaken by a young man from another village. After rejecting a series of Granary's intended arranged marriages, Mung Bean started her own love affairs.
The young man was the only son in his family, an obviously unsuitable candidate to llk after the parents-in-law. Worse still, Mung Bean did not want him to live in her own home.
Thus, a protracted war started between Granary and Mung Bean.
One day Granary raised a wooden stick and struck at her back. The stick sprang back forcefully with a "pop" sound. Tears instantly filled his eyes. "God damn you," Granary cursed. "Why didn't you dodge it? Why didn't you dodge it?"
Granary suddenly realized that his daughter had grown up and that he could not hit her that way.
Instead, he went on a hunger strike, lying o the kang, covering himself up with his quilt. Mung Bean did not ask him to get up, but cooked him two or three delicious dishes every meal and placed them at the head of the kang with a pot of heated wine. The first day, Granary refused to eat, so Mung Bean finished the good like a hungry wolf in front of him. It happened again the next day. On the third day, Granary jumped out of bed, cursing, "Damn it, the urine alone will kill me!"
Mung Bean and her mom laughed outside the window.
Finally, Mung bean married her sweetheart, accepting her parents-in-law as her own. The young couple went all out at work, and within a few years they built a row of redbrick houses with red tiles.
"We should invite my parents to live with us now," Mung Bean said to her husband one day.
"Isn't the same for me to live in their house and look after them there?"
Mung Bean raised her eyes at him. "Don't you know the difference yourself? Just go and pick them up. Don't babble."
"I'm just teasing you," he smiled. So he went to pick up his parents-in-law. On their way back, he also bought a barrel of rice wine. For he knew his father-in-law just loved a sip or two in his leisure time.