My Mother’s Religion

By Liu Chenglong

Translation by Trans

My Mother’s Religion

By Liu Chenglong

Translation by Trans

In my home, pea beans must be the first vegetable to witness the beginning of spring.The cluster of flowers flourishing in reds,yellows, and a variety of other colors are blossoming pea beans, and the lily white blooms are winter beans. Both the pea beans and winter beans are thriving and showing off their splendor.That they grow so quickly and beautifully is all due to my mother’s care.

When the seeds were sown, my mother mixed turf ash with dung, scooped it up and scattered it in the field. The mixture was so thick and smelly that even several days later, the obnoxious smell still lingered on her hands. Once, she asked me to do the work, and when she saw me put on a pair of gloves, she slapped me in the face and roared, “Is that the way you treat crops?”

I have seen my mother fighting over dung.After the cattle had a good feast, they were always followed by some villagers with assorted tools,eyeing the beasts expectantly. They competed with each other, trying to be the first to get at the recently defecated dung. One time my mother had no tools on her. Regardless, when she saw some fresh dung, she instantly dashed over to the cow and used her blouse to scoop it all up.

Being so proud of her achievement, she strutted like a champion and could not help giggling all the way back. When she got to our vegetable garden, she dumped it straight onto a patch of pea beans. As a result, the pea beans enjoyed a lot of nourishment and flourished.

菜豆子是報春最早的蔬菜吧。那開著紅花黃花五顏六色的，是菜豆子；那一襲純白的，是冬豆子。她們長得那么快，長得那么美，當然也有因由。

母親厚待她們。她們下地之初，母親就燒了草皮山灰，與大糞一起攪拌。母親用手抓，一兜一兜撒播。你知道，那山灰摻糞便多肥；你不知道，那味道有多重，三五天那手依然不可聞的。母親曾經(jīng)叫我抓，我找了一雙手套，母親一巴掌拍過來：你對莊稼這么不敬？

我見過母親搶肥。牛吃草吃飽后，后面會跟著好幾個叔伯嬸嫂。他們有的拿笸籮，有的拿灰斗，有的拿撮箕，虎視眈眈，等牛拉屎。牛尾巴一翹，一哄而上，誰搶得歸誰。那次我母親沒拿工具，一頭牛要拉了，母親一個箭步，拉起上衣，全兜了。

母親以勝利者的姿態(tài)哈哈笑，一路兜著，倒在自家的菜園子里。那菜園子里正長著菜豆子，那一坨牛糞滋養(yǎng)的菜豆子長得格外茂盛。

菜豆子之后，便是土豆，便是番茄，便是青辣椒，便是絲瓜、線瓜、苦瓜、南瓜。這些蔬菜，像趕赴一場盛宴，呼朋喚友，一撥兒一撥兒來了。母親說：“要是菜豆子說，那個鐵道沖的劉家去不得，這些蔬菜們都不來了，你們到哪吃去？”母親說這話的時候，不笑。母親平時說話很愛笑，但母親說到蔬菜，說到莊稼，她不笑。這里面，也許有神靈吧。

母親不太信神靈。隔壁的三奶奶信。三奶奶時時刻刻手上都拿著一副卦，砌房子、出遠門這些大事，要打卦，就是扛只鋤頭去鋤麥子，也要打一卦問神仙宜不宜動土。母親從不打卦，她信另外一種神靈。母親下紅薯種，挑選陽光熱烈的晌午。晌午時分，人都回去吃飯，鳥們也回去午休，母親便領(lǐng)著一幫孩子上園子，悶著挖土，不說話。

總是有那么幾個遲歸的嬸娘，這時節(jié)還在野外，碰到母親總要

A harvest of pea beans was always followed by the harvests of other vegetables such as potatoes,tomatoes, green peppers, luffas, bitter gourds, and pumpkins. The garden would become as lively as a party full of familiar friends. My mother remarked,“If the pea bean said, ‘I won’t go to the Liu family’s garden,’ then all the other vegetables wouldn’t come either, and you’d have nothing to eat.” My mother always smiled when she talked, but every time she mentioned vegetables, she turned unusually serious.Maybe she believed that there were vegetable deities.

My mother didn’t take much interest in gods.However, the old woman next door did. She carried the Eight Diagrams with her at all times. Every time there was an important event like a new house being built or a journey to a far off place, divination was a must. Even more ridiculous, when she wanted to hoe the wheat field, she would ask the gods when the right time to dig up the soil was. My mother never did this sort of thing. She was a disciple of another kind of religion. She would sow sweet potato seeds in the scorching midday heat. When others returned for lunch and the birds flew back to their nests, my mother was out hoeing the soil silently with a group of kids.

It was customary to see a few women hanging around in the fields. “Aunty Liu, it’s time to go home!” they always cried out to my mother.

Mother never responded. She was usually friendly,but at times like this, she pretended to be deaf and dumb. “You can’t reply. If you reply, the birds and mice will hear you, figure out where the crops are,and come to steal them. Birds fly all over the world,so they have a great grasp of different languages and the ability to survive anywhere. Mice, on the other hand, are indigenous and have lived here for countless generations. It’s natural that they understand our dialect,” she said.

Whenever a bird flew over, piercing the air with a whistling sound, my mother would look up and gesture at it. What this strange communication actually meant still eludes me to this day. After all,each religion involves a series of arcane intricacies,so my mother’s shouldn’t be any different.Regardless, the fact of the matter is that the sweet potatoes and wheat growing in our fields managed to endure all kinds of trials and tribulations,flourishing vigorously with each passing day. In contrast, the old ladies in our neighborhood always grew grouchy a couple of days after sowing their seeds, complaining bitterly about the sneaky mice eating their sweet potato seeds and obnoxious sparrows ruining their wheat. Somehow that never happened to my mother. All thanks to some mysterious power beyond expression and comprehension.

喊：“劉嬸子，還不回去啊？”

母親不應(yīng)。母親平時很熱情的，此刻卻裝聾作啞，不應(yīng)人。母親說：“不能應(yīng)人的。一應(yīng)，鳥就曉得了，鳥就來啄種了；一應(yīng)，老鼠就聽到了，老鼠就來偷吃了。鳥是走世界走江湖的，見多識廣，它有本事到哪里都能活下去，話語能力肯定超人；老鼠是土著，祖祖輩輩生活在我們這里，懂得我們的方言不是一件很怪的事情。”

有鳥“嗖”的一聲帶著哨音飛過，母親就舉頭打了一個手勢。我到現(xiàn)在也不明白，母親的這個手勢與鳥做了一次什么交流？所有的宗教里頭，都會存在一些神秘莫測的東西，母親也一定會有。我們的紅薯或者小麥在此之后確實平安無事，都蓬勃生長。對門的伯母與屋背后的嬸娘，每次下完種回來沒幾天，都會罵，罵老鼠偷吃紅薯種，罵麻雀把麥子啄了個稀爛。母親從來沒這回事，這是超然于我們感官之外的神秘力量。

母親不罵人。母親說：“在菜園子里是不能罵人的。那些惡話毒誓從口里罵出來，落到土里，會變成蟲子咬菜?！蹦赣H的菜十分光鮮，毫無瑕疵，即或是天生“麻疹”的苦瓜，也比別人家的光滑。像所有的教徒一樣，母親虔誠地修煉自己的內(nèi)心。每一年新鮮蔬菜上桌，母親都要請父親先嘗。雞爪，母親夾給父親吃，那是為要父親扒財喜。新鮮蔬菜叫父親先吃，是叫我們孝敬。

竹子有上節(jié)下節(jié)，人有尊長晚幼。忠信孝悌，與人為善。那些蔬菜大概在它們的種子時節(jié)，就考察了我母親的品性吧。開春的菜豆子也許這么喊：“鐵道沖的劉嬸子家是個好人家，我們都去她家吧?！辈硕棺右宦暫?，蔬菜們便紛紛響應(yīng)，結(jié)伴來了。我們家的南瓜都有一抱大，個個像彌勒佛；我們家的冬瓜站起來有人高，一排排靠在屋墻上像十八羅漢；那豆角，一線一線地吊串串，像春天密密麻麻的雨腳。年年都是這樣，我家蔬菜大豐收。

我家的碓屋有個神龕，正中端坐著我的爺爺。爺爺是梨木雕刻，身上罩著一塊紅綢布。我家的祖宗都在神龕上，平時只有我爺爺值班，到我們供饗的時候，他們都回來。我爺爺旁邊有一只青瓷壇子，里頭裝的都是種子：辣椒、玉米以及南瓜、線瓜、高粱等種子。她們被母親分門別類，用紅布包裹，一層一層地放在壇子里。神龕的后面是我家的柴火灶。在寒冷的臘月，我家在這里煮豬潲、釀酒、蒸飯炒菜，天天有薪火燃燒。種子們在這里既享受春天般的溫曖，又歆享母親宗教般的供奉。

這是母親的宗教。?

（摘自《回家地圖》天津教育出版社）

Mother never abused anyone. “In the field you should hold your tongue, because any vicious insults and oaths spilling out from your mouth will only turn into worms in the soil that will eat our vegetables,” she said. Her vegetables were always fleshy and flawless with a pearly sheen, and even the inherently “l(fā)eprous” bitter gourds seemed to be sleeker than other people’s. Like all devout disciples, my mother would discipline herself piously to improve her morality. Every year when the fresh vegetables were first served on our table,she would ask my father to taste them first. By doing so, she intended to teach us filial piety. She would also offer chicken feet to my father, which was believed to invite great fortune.

Just like the segmented culms of bamboo,human society is comprised of different groups,namely the young and the elderly, the junior and the senior. Thus, the maintenance of interpersonal relationships requires qualities like loyalty,honesty, filial piety, and hospitality. Perhaps those vegetables had already verified my mother’s virtues while they were still seedlings. Perhaps the kidney beans shouted, “Hey, Aunty Liu in Tiedaochong is so nice. Let’s all go to her house!” Maybe that is why all the vegetables flocked to our home, why the pumpkins in our field swelled to an unusual size,why the nearby white gourds stood as tall as me,and why the green beans that dangled in midair overhead on strings always threatened to pour down like raindrops. Every single year we were blessed with bumper harvests.

In our small shed, a shrine was erected with a statue of my grandfather set squarely in the middle.It was carved out of pear wood and covered in a red mantle. All our ancestors had their places in the shrine, which was usually just patrolled by my grandfather, but when we offered sacrifices,their wandering souls would gather there. Beside my grandfather there stood a porcelain jar with various plant seeds inside: pepper, corn, pumpkin,loofah, sorghum, and so forth. Those seeds were categorized by Mother with discretion and piled up carefully in red wraps inside the jar. Behind the shrine lay our kitchen. In freezing winters, we cooked hogwash, brewed wine, and cooked meals there, as the wood-fueled fire danced all day long.In the shrine, the seeds could snuggle cozily up in spring-like conditions all year round while also enjoying my mother’s pious worship.

This is my mother’s religion. ?

(From A Map of Home, Tianjin Education Press)

菜園如神龕

文/劉誠龍 譯/傳神