我曾经和犁铧打过几十年的交道,手中的那把犁就像身上的粗布衣服一样,只有到了晚上才能把它脱下来。我眼看着,犁铧将我年轻的岁月翻犁过去了;犁铧翻动的时候,我的青春如同犁花子样一个压一个地留在了我的身后。那时候,我们生产队里有一处山庄,每年,我都要去山庄犁地的。在山里犁地,不比平原上。在平原上扶着犁,人和牛仿佛织机上的梭子,在同一匹布上过来过去地穿;在山里犁地,人和牛却在两匹布上穿梭,牛在土地的上畔,人在犁沟的下畔,人的目光里净是牛的腿。地很陡,人必须仰视。人如果在山里犁过十几年地,人如果挺直脊梁仰视惯了,人就很难低头垂下眼了。劳动可以给人习惯,劳动把人的习惯变成了人的性格的一个部分。因此,我的脊梁很硬,脖子很直,即使在庞然大物面前,也很难弯腰低头的。有时候,有人按住我的脖颈硬压下去,或者情境迫使自己不得不弯腰,即使腰弯了,仰视的角度不会变。 I had been dealing with plowshares for decades. The plow in my hands was like a coarse cloth on my body. It was only at night that I could take it off. I watched as the rake had plowed over my young years; when the rake was turning, my youth was like a plow, and it stayed behind me one by one. At that time, there was a mountain village in our production team. Every year, I would go to the village to plow the land. Plowing in the mountains is no better than plains. The ploughs were lifted on the plain, and the men and the cows seemed to be on the same cloth as the shuttles on the looms came to wear them; in the mountains they ploughed the land, and the men and the cattle flew on two cloths, the cattle on the banks of the land, the people plowing. The bottom of the ditch, people’s eyes in the net is the cow’s legs. The ground is steep and people must look up. If a person plows in the mountains for more than ten years, if people are used to looking up and backsliding, people can hardly bow their eyes. Labor can give people habits. Labor changes people’s habits into a part of their character. Therefore, my spine is very stiff and my neck is straight. Even in front of the mammoth, it is difficult to bend my head. Sometimes, someone presses my neck hard and presses down, or the situation forces him to bend over. Even if he bends his back, the angle of looking up will not change.