這部小說通過對(duì)一個(gè)命途多舛的母親的描寫，謳歌了母親的樸素與無私。這位母親付出所有去捍衛(wèi)的那些生命最終卻隨著動(dòng)蕩的歲月卷入了中國(guó)各種政治勢(shì)力及民間組織的混戰(zhàn)。她的兒女代表著各自的陣營(yíng)在家庭中展開爭(zhēng)奪和廝殺，卻給予母親難以消解、無法承受的現(xiàn)實(shí)：刀槍相向的戰(zhàn)亂、白發(fā)人送黑發(fā)人的痛苦以及對(duì)單傳的廢人兒子的擔(dān)心和焦慮。但此次節(jié)選的小節(jié)是一個(gè)母親在窮途末路時(shí)重拾勇氣，帶領(lǐng)兒女創(chuàng)出生的希望的部分，也是全書中少見的溫暖部分。當(dāng)這位母親把盛著砒霜湯、有著缺口的破碗扔到院子里，說著“不死了，死都不怕了，還怕什么呢！”的時(shí)候，她給了整個(gè)上官家族一次沿襲的機(jī)會(huì)，也正是由此才有了后來更為精彩的部分?？傊栽谒男≌f中構(gòu)造了非常具有個(gè)性的主觀感覺世界，通過精妙絕倫的敘述塑造出一個(gè)個(gè)神秘的對(duì)象世界，帶有明顯的“先鋒”色彩。

美國(guó)《出版社周刊》曾推薦這部小說：“引人入勝的細(xì)節(jié)，毫不畏縮的描寫……這小說是一次感官盛宴。”莫言本人也曾說：“你可以不看我所有的作品，但你如果要了解我，應(yīng)該看我的《豐乳肥臀》?！庇纱丝梢姡@部小說肯定有著不可小覷的魅力，大家認(rèn)真體會(huì)文中情節(jié)吧，過把癮再說！

莫言，山東高密人，1955年生。其許多作品都已被譯成多國(guó)語言，在國(guó)內(nèi)外文壇影響廣泛。莫言在20世紀(jì)80年代中期以鄉(xiāng)土作品崛起，作品充滿“懷鄉(xiāng)”、“怨鄉(xiāng)”的復(fù)雜情感，被歸類為“尋根文學(xué)”作家，深受魔幻現(xiàn)實(shí)主義影響。1997年，《豐乳肥臀》奪得中國(guó)設(shè)置最高額獎(jiǎng)金的“大家文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)”，獎(jiǎng)金高達(dá)十萬元人民幣；2011年憑長(zhǎng)篇小說《蛙》獲第八屆茅盾文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)；2012年10月11日獲得諾貝爾文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)，諾貝爾委員會(huì)給其的頒獎(jiǎng)詞為:“The Nobel Prize in Literature 2012 was awarded to Mo Yan, who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary.”

In order for both me and that little 1)bastard to survive, Mother courageously led my sisters out of the cellar into the light of day.

The grain in our family storage room was all gone, as were the mule and the donkey; the pots and pans and all the dishes had been smashed; and the Guanyin Bodhisattva in the shrine was now a headless corpse. Mother had forgotten to take her foxskin coat into the cellar with her; the lynx coats belonging to my eighth sister and me were nowhere to be seen. The fur on the other coats, which the rest of my sisters never took off, had by then fallen off, giving them the look of mangy wild animals.

Shangguan Lyu lay beneath the millstone in the storage room. Shed eaten all twenty or so of the turnips Mother had left for her before moving into the cellar, and had 2)shat a pile of cobblestone-looking turds. When Mother went in to see her, she picked up a handful of the petrified turds and flung them at her. The skin of her face looked like frozen, decaying turnip peels; her white hair looked like twisted yarn, some sticking straight up, some hanging down her back. A green light emerged from her eyes. Shaking her head, Mother laid several turnips on the floor in front of her.

為了我跟那小混蛋的生命，母親帶著姐姐們，大膽地鉆出了地窖，回到陽光普照的人間。

我們家東廂房里的麥子沒有了，驢和小騾沒有了，鍋碗瓢盆都成了碎片，神龕里的瓷觀音成了無頭尸首。母親忘記拿下地窖的狐貍皮大衣、我與八姐的猞猁皮小襖也不見了。姐姐們須臾不離身的皮毛衣服保住了，但毛根腐爛，一片片脫落，這些衣服使她們成了遍體癩瘡的野獸。

上官呂氏臥在西廂房的磨盤下，啃光了母親臨下地道前扔給她的二十個(gè)蘿卜，屙出一大堆卵石般的硬屎。母親進(jìn)去看她時(shí)，她抓起那些硬屎蛋投過來。她的臉皮像凍爛的蘿卜，白發(fā)糾纏成繩子，有的直豎著，有的拖到背上。她的眼睛里放出綠光。母親無奈地?fù)u搖頭，把幾個(gè)蘿卜放在她的面前。

All the Japanese — or maybe it was Chinese —had left for us was a half cellar of sugar beets that had already begun to 3)sprout. Overcome by disappointment, Mother found an unbroken 4)earthenware 5)jar in which Shangguan Lyu had hidden her precious arsenic. She poured the red powder into the 6)turnip soup. Once the powder dissolved, a colored oil spread across the surface of the soup and a foul smell filled the air. Mother 7)stirred the mixture with a wooden 8)ladle until it was smooth, then picked it up and slowly poured it into the 9)wok.

The corner of her mouth twitched oddly. After ladling some of the turnip soup into a 10)chipped bowl, Mother said, “Lingdi, give this soup to your grandmother.” “Mother,” Lingdi said, “you put poison in it, didnt you?” Mother nodded.

“Are you going to poison Grandma?”

“Well all die together,” Mother said, to which my sisters responded by weeping, including my blind eighth sister, whose thin cries were little more than the buzzing of a 11)hornet. Her large, black, but sightless eyes filled with tears. Eighth Sister was the most wretched of the wretched, the saddest of the sad. “But we dont want to die, Mother,” my sisters pleaded tearfully. Even I took up the chant: “Mother…Mother…” “My poor, dear little children…” Mother said; by then she too was crying. She cried for the longest time, all the while accompanied by her 12)sobbing children.

日本人——也許是中國(guó)人——留給我們的，只有半窖抽了黃芽的糠蘿卜。母親絕望了，找出一個(gè)沒被打碎的瓦罐，瓦罐盛著上官呂氏珍藏的砒霜。母親把這些紅色的粉末倒進(jìn)蘿卜湯里。砒霜溶化，湯面上漂浮著一些彩色的油花子，一股腥臭的氣味躥上來。她用木勺子攪著蘿卜湯，攪勻了，盛起來，慢慢地倒，一線渾濁的液體，沿著木勺的缺口，嘩嘩地注到鍋里。

母親的嘴角怪異地抽動(dòng)著。母親把一勺蘿卜湯倒在一只破碗里，說：“領(lǐng)弟，把這碗湯端給你奶奶。”三姐說：“娘，你在湯里加了毒藥?”母親點(diǎn)點(diǎn)頭。

“要把奶奶毒死？”

“大家一塊死?！蹦赣H說。姐姐們齊聲哭起來，連瞎眼的八姐，也跟著哭。她的哭聲細(xì)弱，像只小蜜蜂，那兩只又大又黑、卻什么也看不見的眼睛里，盈著淚水。八姐是凄慘中的最凄慘，可憐中的最可憐。“娘，我們不愿死……”姐姐們哀求著。我也跟著哼唧：“娘……娘……”母親說：“可憐的孩子們……”她大聲地哭起來，哭了好久，我們伴著她哭。

Finally, she blew her nose loudly, took back the chipped bowl, and 13)flung it and its contents into the yard. “Were not going to die! If death doesnt frighten a person, then nothing can!” With that comment, she stood up and led us out into the street to find food.

We were the first villagers to venture out onto the street. When they spotted the heads of the Sima family, my sisters were afraid. But in a matter of days, it was just another village sight. Mother held the little Sima bastard in her arm, so he was directly opposite me. She pointed the heads and said to him softly, “I dont want you to ever forget that, you poor child.”

Mother and my sisters walked out of the village and into a 14)reawakened field, where they began digging up white grass roots, which they would boil after 15)rinsing and 16)mashing them. Third Sister, the smart one, found a nest of 17)voles. What made that such a great find was not just the addition of meat to our diet, but that the food theyd stored away was now ours as well. After that, my sisters made a fishnet out of some 18)hemp 19)twine, which they used to 20)snag some dark, thin fish and shrimp that had survived the winter in the local pond.

One day, Mother put a spoonful of fish 21)broth into my mouth; I 22)spit it right back out and started bawling at the top of my lungs. Then she put a spoonful into the mouth of the Sima brat; the moron swallowed it right down. So Mother fed him another spoonful. He swallowed that too. “Good,”Mother exclaimed excitedly. “For all the bad 23)karma, at least this kid knows how to eat.” She turned her gaze to me. “Now, what about you? Its time you got 24)weaned too.” 25)Panic-stricken, I grabbed hold of her breast.

母親響亮地擤擤鼻涕，把那只破碗連同碗里的砒霜湯，扔到院子里。她說：“不死了！死都不怕了，還怕什么呢？”母親說完，挺直腰板，率領(lǐng)著我們，走上大街，尋找吃食。

我們一家，是村子里首先出現(xiàn)在大街上的人。 起初看到司馬家的人頭時(shí)，姐姐們還有些害怕，幾天后便熟視無睹。司馬家的小混蛋在我母親的懷抱里，與我遙相呼應(yīng)，母親曾指著那些人頭對(duì)他悄聲說：“可憐的孩子，好好記住吧?！?/p>

母親和姐姐們走出村子，在蘇醒的田野里挖掘那種白色的草根，洗凈搗爛，煮成湯喝。聰明的三姐挖掘田鼠的巢穴，除了能捕到肉味鮮美的田鼠，還能挖出它們儲(chǔ)存的糧食。姐姐們還用麻繩編織了漁網(wǎng)，從水塘里撈上苦熬了一冬變得又黑又瘦的魚蝦。

有一天，母親嘗試著把一勺魚湯倒進(jìn)我的嘴里，我毫不猶豫地便吐了出來，并放聲大哭。母親把一勺魚湯倒進(jìn)司馬家那個(gè)混小子嘴里，他竟然傻乎乎地咽了下去。母親又喂他一勺，他又咽了。母親興奮地說：“好了，這個(gè)冤孽，倒底能自己吃東西了。你呢？”母親望著我，說，“你也該斷奶了?！蔽铱謶值刈プ×四赣H的乳房。

The village began to come back to life, once we had taken the lead. It was a 26)calamitous time for local voles; after them came wild 27)jackrabbits, fish, turtles, shrimp, crabs, snakes, and frogs. All across the vast land, the only creatures that survived were poisonous toads and birds on the wing. And still, if not for the timely growth of edible wild 28)herbs, most of the villagers would have starved to death anyway.

在我們的帶動(dòng)下，村子里的人們出動(dòng)了。田鼠們?cè)獾搅丝涨暗慕匐y，接下來便是野兔、魚、鱉、蝦、蟹、蛇、青蛙。廣闊的土地上，活著的東西，只剩下有毒的癩蛤蟆和長(zhǎng)著翅膀的飛鳥。如果不是大量的野菜及時(shí)長(zhǎng)出，村里的人大半都要餓死。

After Qingming passed, the peach blossoms began to fall, and steam rose from fallow fields that cried out for a new planting. But we had no farm animals and no seeds. By the time fat little tadpoles were swimming in the marshes, and in the oval waters of the local pond, and in the 29)shallows of the river, they had taken to the road. By the fourth month, most had left; by the fifth month, most had returned to their homes. Third Master Fan said, “Here at least there are wild grasses and edible herbs to keep us from starving. Thats more than you can say about other places.”

By the sixth month, outsiders had begun showing up in our village. They slept in the church, and on the ground in the Sima compound, and in abandoned mills. Like dogs driven mad by hunger, they stole food out from under us.

Finally, Third Master Fan organized the village men to drive the outsiders away. He was our leader; the outsiders countered with a leader of their own —a young man with bushy eyebrows and big eyes.

清明節(jié)過后，鮮艷的桃花敗落，田野里蒸氣裊裊，土地喧騰，等待著播種，但我們沒有了牲畜，沒有了種籽。待到沼澤地的水汪里、圓形的池塘里、湖邊的淺水里都游動(dòng)著肥胖的蝌蚪時(shí)，村里的人開始流亡。四月里，所有的人幾乎都走了，但到了五月里，大部分人又重返故鄉(xiāng)。樊三大爺說，這里畢竟還有野草野菜可以充饑，別的地方連野草野菜都沒有。

到了六月里，有許多外鄉(xiāng)人也來到了這里。他們睡在教堂里，睡在司馬家的深宅大院里，睡在廢棄的磨坊里。他們像餓瘋了的狗，搶奪著我們的食物。

后來，樊三大爺糾集村里的男人，發(fā)起了驅(qū)趕外鄉(xiāng)人的活動(dòng)。樊三大爺是我們的領(lǐng)袖，外鄉(xiāng)人也推舉出自己的領(lǐng)袖——個(gè)濃眉大眼的青年。

He was a master at catching birds, always seen with a pair of 30)slingshots hanging from his belt and, over his shoulder, a 31)burlap bag that was filled with 32)pellets of dried mud. Third Sister saw him in action one day. A pair of 33)partridges was in the midst of matching ritual up in the air. He took out one of his slingshots and fired a mud pellet into the sky, seemingly without even aiming. One of the partridges fell to the ground like a stone, landing right at Third Sisters feet. The birds head was smashed. Its mate cried out as it circled overhead. The man took out another pellet, fired it into the air, and the second bird fell to the ground. He bent down, picked up the bird, and walked up to my sister.

他是捕鳥的能手，腰里別著兩把彈弓，肩上斜挎著一個(gè)口袋，口袋里裝著用膠泥捏成的泥丸，三姐親眼看到過他的絕技：有兩只鷓鴣在半空中追逐著交尾，他拔出彈弓，根本沒有瞄準(zhǔn)，似乎是隨隨便便地射出—個(gè)泥丸，一個(gè)鷓鴣便垂直地落下來，恰好落在我三姐腳下。鷓鴣的頭被打得粉碎。另一只鷓鴣驚叫著往空中鉆，那人又射出一丸，鷓鴣應(yīng)聲落地。那人撿起鷓鴣，走到我三姐面前。

He looked right at her; she returned his gaze with a hateful stare of her own. By that time, Third Master Fan had been to our house to inform us of the movement to drive away the outsiders, which fired up our hatred of them. But rather than pick up the bird at Third Sisters feet, he 34)tossed her the one in his hands, then turned and walked off without a word.

Third Sister came home with the partridges; the meat was for Mother, the broth for my sisters and the little Sima bastard, and the bones for my grandmother, who 35)crunched them up loudly. Third Sister didnt tell anyone that the outsider had given her the partridges, which were quickly 36)transformed into tasty juices that wound up in my stomach.

On a number of occasions, Mother waited until I was asleep to stick one of her nipples into the mouth of the little Sima baby, but he refused it. He preferred to grow up on grasses and bark. Blessed with an astonishing appetite, he swallowed anything that was put into his mouth. “Hes like a donkey,” Mother commented. “He was born to eat grass.”

他看看我三姐。我三姐用仇恨的目光看著他。樊三大爺已到我家進(jìn)行過驅(qū)逐外鄉(xiāng)人的宣傳，煽起了我們對(duì)外鄉(xiāng)人的仇恨。那人非但沒撿我三姐腳前那只鷓鴣，反而把手里那只鷓鴣也扔了過去。他一聲沒吭就走了。

三姐撿回了鷓鴣，讓母親吃上了鷓鴣肉，讓姐姐們和司馬家的小混蛋喝上了鷓鴣湯，讓上官呂氏吃上了鷓鴣骨頭。她咀嚼骨頭的聲音很響：嘎嘣！嘎嘣！三姐保守了外鄉(xiāng)人贈(zèng)鷓鴣的秘密。鷓鴣很快變成味道鮮美的乳汁，進(jìn)入我的胃腸。

有幾次，母親曾試圖趁我睡著時(shí)把乳頭塞到司馬家的小男孩嘴里，但他拒絕接受。他吃著草根樹皮成長(zhǎng)，食量驚人，只要塞到他嘴里的東西，他都一律咽下去。“簡(jiǎn)直像一頭驢,”母親說,“他生來就是吃草的命?！?/p>