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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.
雖然孩子們長時間不在家，但他們始終是我的孩子，也許是命運讓他們離開了我們。我們的這片土地很小，也不再肥沃，就像我們一樣，一年年地被榨干了血，慢慢上了年紀，漸漸筋疲力竭了。而我和我的丈夫還是在這片土地上耕作。在雨水充足的年份，土地還不難耕種,可要是趕上干旱，干硬的土地不僅使我們的犁耙碎了，還讓我們的心也碎了。
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，我們兩口子一直沒怎么變，可是我們的村子卻變了很多。怎么變了？就在十年前你還能以物易物，可現在就得用現金買東西了。幾年前你還能喊你的鄰居們幫著蓋房子、割稻子或挖口井。但現在只有付錢給他們，他們才干。塑料制品代替了村里手工做的東西。過去男人們常常用好的竹蔑做東西，但現在已經不再做了。塑料袋扔得村里哪兒都是。村里還突然冒出了一些商店，里面擺滿了五顏六色的塑料制品和對我們沒什么用的東西。年輕人離開家去了城鎮，留下我們這些上了年紀的人種田。我知道他們的想法和我們的不同，他們說我們歲數大的人跟不上時代。我活了這么大歲數，從沒進過理發店，沒涂過嘴唇，沒涂過指甲。我這粗手粗腳是用來在稻田的泥地里干活的，而不是擺樣子好看的。
