读与朝暮第二期：《贫瘠的春天》
Barren Spring by Pearl S. Buck
“荣获诺贝尔文学奖和普利策奖的女作家名作，《西南联大英文课》第一课”
“对中国农民生活丰富与真实的史诗般描述”
“凝视沉重苦难的目光饱含强烈的人文关怀”
春天来了，在一个二月末的黄昏。农民老刘看着干裂的土地，回忆着自己曾经拥有的树木、沃土、耕犁、水牛、亲人——这些都在长江洪灾和严冬饥荒中化为乌有。春天来了，却没有带来生机与希望，这是一个贫瘠的春天。
内容干货
1. 作者简介，本文概要
作者简介：
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (1892-1973), American novelist and strong advocate of human rights and woman’s rights, was noted for her novels based on her near-40-year life in China. She received the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 and Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. Her direct and calm narration magically strikes a chord with readers.
Notable Works: East Wind, West Wind (1930) The Good Earth (1931) The Exile (1936)
作品梗概：
Selected from The First Wife and Other Stories (1933), Barren Spring tells a heartbreaking story of loss. Farmer Liu had lost his land, his plow, his buffalo, his parents and children during the winter famine and flood, and finally, lost his hope in the coming barren spring.
2. 单词词组，地道表达
往年春天带来生机和希望，生命力会在树木里stir，柳树会冒出swelling buds，桃杏正at the height of time，将会bear a load of fruit。但这一切都消失了。呆望着cracked soil，农民老刘ached to plow it up。但他没有水牛，没有耕犁。严冬饥荒中的饥饿与绝望让老刘变成了a man without reason，他gather his feeble strength去杀掉他亲如兄弟的水牛来给自己和家人充饥。老刘拒绝了逃难，他在家里埋葬了他withered母亲，父亲和两个孩子。剩下的人靠eat shrimps raw和crawl out to dig sprouting dandelions为生。春天来了，老刘却feel hopeless as a leaf tossed upon the flood。没有慰藉，没有希望，老刘呆呆望着这贫瘠的春天。
3. 文章佳句，沉浸赏析
衣不蔽体，食不果腹，衣食间拆东墙补西墙？
Was there sense in stripping the coat off one’s back to feed one’s belly?
绝境之中，理智与情感如何撕扯？
On that day when he had seen the faces of his old parents set as though dead, on that day when he had heard the crying of his children and seen his little daughter dying, such a despair had seized him as made him like a man without his reason, so that he had gathered together his feeble strength and he had done what he said he never would; he had taken the kitchen knife and gone out and killed his own beast. When he did it, even in his despair, he groaned, for it was as though he killed his own brother. To him it was the last sacrifice.
绝望宣泄，何去何从？
“I have no seed to plant in the land. There the land lies! I could go and claw it up with my hands if I had the seed and the land would bear. I know my good land. But I have no seed and the land is empty. Yes, even though spring comes, we must still starve!”
4. 主旨哲思，流连赏玩
天灾人祸，生的挣扎
“He had cut them off during the bitter winter when they were starving for food and he had sold them one by one.”
“…he had gathered together his feeble strength and he had done what he said he never would; he had taken the kitchen knife and gone out and killed his own beast.”
“Many of the villagers went south to other places, or they went down the river to beg in the great cities.”
“In the last day or so his wife had crawled out and dug a few sprouting dandelions. But there was no fuel and so they also were eaten raw. But the bitterness was good after the tasteless flesh of the raw shrimps.”
卖树、杀牛、逃难、生吃……天灾人祸面前，人们为了活命，做出了多少牺牲，这其中又有多少理智、情感、生死的挣扎。
生死疲劳，尊严何存
“Liu the farmer, had never begged. Moreover, it seemed to him then that they must all die and the only comfort left was to die on their own land.”
“he and his wife had quarreled over the poor few clothes on the old body. His wife was a hard woman and she would have buried the old mother naked, if he had let her, so as to have the clothes for the children. But he made her leave on the inner coat and trousers; although they were only rags after all”
流落他乡以求一线生机，还是落叶归根保留最后体面？保留死者尊严，生者的尊严又如何保障？生存都成问题，尊严置于何地？
一无所有，何来希望
“But now he was comforted by nothing.”
“I have no seed to plant in the land. There the land lies! I could go and claw it up with my hands if I had the seed and the land would bear. I know my good land. But I have no seed and the land is empty. Yes, even though spring comes, we must still starve!”
“And he looked, hopeless, into the barren spring.”
没犁没牛没种子，希望渺然。灾难之后，如何让人重拾希望，重建家园？
天灾人祸，生死疲劳，百姓煎熬。我们不禁思考这样一个问题：面对灾难，我们如何尽可能活着。不仅活着，还有尊严，有希望。我们期待逾越了冬天之后，春天不再贫瘠，而是如以往一样，草长莺飞，芳华满枝。
