我爱我母亲，
I love my mother.
特别是她勤劳一生，很多事情是值得我永远回忆的。
Of her hard-working life, in particular, a great many things will forever be cherished in my memory.
我家是佃农，
I come from a tenant farmer's family.
祖籍广东韶关客籍人，
My original family home was Shao Guan, Guangdong Province, into which my ancestors had moved from another province at settlers.
在"湖广填四川"时迁移四川仪陇县马鞍场。
During the mass migration of peasants from Huguang to Sichuan province, my ancestors moved to Ma An Chang, Yi Long County, Sichuan.
世代为地主耕种，家境是贫苦的，
From generation to generation, they tilled land for landlords only to eke out a bare subsistence.
和我们来往的朋友也都是老老实实的贫苦农民。
People who associated with them as friends were likewise honest impoverished peasants.
母亲一共生了十三个儿女，
Mother gave birth to thirteen children in all.
因为家境贫穷，无法全部养活，只留下八个，以后在生下的被迫溺死了。
But only the first eight of them survived while the next five were drowned at birth by my parents against their will because they were too poor to raise them all.
这在母亲心里是多么惨痛、悲哀和无可奈何的事啊！
How anguished, sad and helpless mother must have felt!
母亲把八个孩子一手养大成人。
She did manage, however, to have the eight children brought up all by herself.
可是她的时间大半给家务和耕种占去了，没法多照顾孩子，只好让孩子们在地里爬着。
But she was too busily occupied with household chores and farming to look after the kids so that they were left alone crawling about in the fields.
母亲是个"好劳动"。
Mother was a hard-working woman.
从我能记忆时起，总是天不亮就起床。
As far as I can remember, she will would get up before daybreak.
全家二十口人，妇女们轮班煮饭，轮到就煮一年。
In our household of more than twenty members, all women would take turns to do cooking for one year.
母亲把饭煮了，还要种地种菜，喂猪养蚕，纺棉花。
Apart from cooking, mother did farming, planted vegetables, fed pigs, raised silkworms and spinned cotton into yarn.
因为她身材高大结实，还能挑水挑粪。
Tall and of strong build, she could carry two buckets of water or manure on a shoulder pole.
母亲这样的整日劳碌着，
Mother worked hard from dawn till dusk.
我们到四五岁时就很自然地在旁边帮她的忙，
When we kids were four or five years old, we found ourselves automatically helping her with farm work.
到八九岁时就不单能挑能背，还会种地了。
At the age of eight or nine, I could not only carry heavy loads on the shoulder pole or on my back, but also knew how to farm the land.
记得那时我从学堂回家，母亲总在早上汗流满面地烧饭，我就悄悄把书本一放，挑水或放牛去了。
I remember whenever I came back from school and saw mother busy cooking in the kitchen with sweat streaming down her face, I would immediately lay down my books and sneak out to carry water on the shoulder pole or graze the cattle.
有的季节里，我上午读书下午种地，
In some seasons, I would study in the morning and work in the fields in the afternoon.
一到农忙便整月停在地里跟着母亲劳动。
During the busy season, I was spent all day working by the side of mother.
这个时期母亲交给我许多生产知识。
It was then that she taught me a lot about the knack of farming.