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All of them remain my children in spite of their long absence. Maybe it's fate that sent them away from us. Our piece of land is small, and it is no longer fertile, bleeding year after year and, like us, getting old and exhausted. Still my husband and I work on this land. The soil is not difficult to till when there is a lot of rain, but in a bad year, it's not only the ploughs that break but our hearts, too.
虽然孩子们长时间不在家，但他们始终是我的孩子，也许是命运让他们离开了我们。我们的这片土地很小，也不再肥沃，就像我们一样，一年年地被榨干了血，慢慢上了年纪，渐渐筋疲力竭了。而我和我的丈夫还是在这片土地上耕作。在雨水充足的年份，土地还不难耕种,可要是赶上干旱，干硬的土地不仅使我们的犁耙碎了，还让我们的心也碎了。
No, we two haven't changed much, but the village has. In what way? Only ten years ago, you could barter for things, but now it's all cash. Years ago, you could ask your neighbors to help build your house, reap the rice or dig a well. Now they'll do it only if you have money to pay them. Plastic things replace village crafts. Men used to make things with bamboo pieces, but no longer. Plastic bags litter the village. Shops have sprung up, filled with colorful plastic things and goods we have no use for. The young go away to towns and cities leaving us old people to work on the land. They think differently, I know, saying that the old are old-fashioned. All my life, I have never had to go to a hairdresser, or to paint my lips or nails. These rough fingers and toes are for working in the mud of our rice fields, not for looking pretty.
是的，我们两口子一直没怎么变，可是我们的村子却变了很多。怎么变了？就在十年前你还能以物易物，可现在就得用现金买东西了。几年前你还能喊你的邻居们帮着盖房子、割稻子或挖口井。但现在只有付钱给他们，他们才干。塑料制品代替了村里手工做的东西。过去男人们常常用好的竹蔑做东西，但现在已经不再做了。塑料袋扔得村里哪儿都是。村里还突然冒出了一些商店，里面摆满了五颜六色的塑料制品和对我们没什么用的东西。年轻人离开家去了城镇，留下我们这些上了年纪的人种田。我知道他们的想法和我们的不同，他们说我们岁数大的人跟不上时代。我活了这么大岁数，从没进过理发店，没涂过嘴唇，没涂过指甲。我这粗手粗脚是用来在稻田的泥地里干活的，而不是摆样子好看的。
