Love a gourd flower
Liu Xinwu
(Entered the "80s post", marathon runner of literary writing in 2022)
During the Spring Festival, I want to read Sun Li's novel "The First Record of the Wind and Clouds", in which he integrates prose brushstrokes into the narrative text, overflowing with poetry.
For example, in a passage in the book: "Mangzi went to fetch water and drink livestock, and Chun'er spun thread with her head bowed on the embankment, and the spinning wheel turned into a flower in her arms." It was the middle of the night, and the sky was dripping with dew. In the field it dripped on the jointed sorghum trees, around the earthen walls, on the reddened cracked dates, in the wide yard, on the young and strong mango and on the large bluestone stakes lying beside him. At this time, Chun'er was lying on the kangtou in her own home, sleeping very sweetly, and did not know that in such a late night, someone would miss her... A tender green grasshopper on the gourd rack outside the window sucked in the dew and was crying with joy; the gourd was heavy and drooping, and it was full of fur like the tender skin of a baby, and the dew dripped through the fur. Above the shelf, a large white flower, holding a long arrow, opened up to the sky. The grasshoppers barked and crawled slowly there. ”
▲ Writer Liu Xinwu
After reading these words, I thought: What is patriotism? What is a homestead? What is an ethnicity? What are the people? How specific and nuanced Sun Li's writing is! Love it, love the ordinary people who plant spring children, pay their youth and all their lives for the survival, development and strength of the nation, love the dew-moist land under their feet, love the cracked dates, the tender green grasshoppers, love the new gourds that are born all over the hometown like the fur on the tender skin of babies... I have always loved the wide white gourd flower with a long arrow and opening up to the sky in my hometown.
Author: Liu Xinwu
Editor: Zhou Yiqian
Editor-in-Charge: Zhu Zifen
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.