● 文／陈晴山 By Chen Qing-shan

　　乡土观念,在另一方面，也可说是封建思想。宇宙之大，究竟何
处才是我们的乡，这很难说。界碑是人造的，地图上绘的若断若续、
点线相错、电报符号般的界线，也不是生成的。我们偏要硬指某一线
之内，是我们的乡；之外，便沦为异域；这当然不合理，然而谁都不
免有这个观念。天下事不合理的尽多，似乎不容我们事事讲理。人毕
竟是感情的动物，不要看得太神圣了，“浮屠不三宿桑下，不欲久生
恩爱”，佛家常称一切皆空，三宿尚恐发生“恩爱”何况我们凡人俗
子！



　　From a certain perspective, the notion of a "native 
land" can be said to be rather antiquated. The world is so 
large that it is difficult to say where really is our native
land. The lines of demarcation are all man made. What is 
drawn on a map - where the lines break, where they continue,
where they intersect, just like the symbols of the 
telegraphic code - are not at all the work of nature. 
Somehow, we are bent on defining some area within these 
lines as our native land. Anywhere without we would cast 
aside as foreign. This is quite irrational, but there is 
hardly anyone who does not think in this manner. There are 
so many things under the sun that are irrational that it 
looks as though we cannot approach everything in a 
completely rational way. Humankind after all is an emotional
creature and it should be quite all right to be irrational. 
As the saying goes: "A Buddhist monk does not spend more 
than three nights under the same mulberry tree, for fear of 
emotional attachment." As we all know, Buddhism very simply 
holds that all things will eventually come to naught. If a 
Buddhist monk should fear the risk of emotional attachment 
to the mulberry tree with just three nights under it, what 
more can be asked of we ordinary mortals?



　　乡既不尽属“无何有”，于是就有新故之分。普遍所谓故乡，并
不是与其人之生活或事业有如何深长的历史、密切的关系有关，只是
较先住居的一个所在。就这一点，便值得我们怀念，尤为不合理。然
而我却常犯着不合理的毛病，可有什么办法？



　　As the notion of "native land" is not altogether a 
fiction, there is therefore a distinction between what is 
our native land and the land of our adoption. That which we 
commonly call our "native land" is not because of a long and
intimate historical association and close relationship with 
our current lives or work. It is simply because that is the 
place where we happen to have first lived. It is especially 
irrational that we should nurse a yearning for such a place 
for no reason other than this simple fact. But then what can
I do about my repeatedly falling into this habit of 
irrationality?



　　我的故乡，在遥远的中国东南一个海滨。说起我和她的关系，还
比不上马来亚这样密切，可是我时时刻刻都在怀念着她！从元旦橘子
想到除夕的年糕、枇杷，此刻大概已经过时，荔枝快要上市了。一个
月以前，我在这里便看见果摊上摆着雪房荔枝，美人憔悴，已无复十
八娘颜色，毕竟因为她的芳名，只得不惜重金礼聘，谁知咽残风味，
嚼破天浆之后，只觉一阵辛酸，反惹起若干年来怀乡的老病。妻和我
有同病，尤其不合理的，一个未满六岁的小孩，因为不能说纯粹的乡
音，老是受她责备：“为什么不说自己的话？”这真奇了，自己的，
究竟是谁的呢？故乡吗？他简直梦里也不曾到过，至多只能说是“父
母之邦”罢了。



　　My native land is located far away, along the coast in 
the south east corner of China. Come to think of it, her 
relationship with me is not as intimate as my relationship 
with Malaya. But she is constantly in my mind! I think of 
her from the time of tangerine oranges on the first day of 
Lunar New Year to the glutinous rice cakes on New Year's 
Eve. The time for loquats is perhaps now over, but lychees 
will soon be in full season. A month ago, some fruit stalls 
here were full of fresh lychees from "cold storage". Alas, 
lychees are no different: when the freshness of a fair 
maiden fades away, there is nothing that can really restore 
her crimson rouge. It is only because of her fame and 
renowned beauty that one would spare no expense for her 
dowry. Who could have guessed, that after ferociously 
savouring this exotic taste from the native land, one is 
then overcome by an attack of nostalgic melancholy which 
triggers off this chronic affliction of homesickness. My 
wife and I suffer from the same affliction. But what is 
especially irrational is for her to chide our barely 
six-year-old child for not being able to speak the native 
dialect with an accent true and pure. She would constantly 
admonish the poor boy: "Why are you not speaking our own 
native dialect?" This is truly a strange question. "Our 
own?" But whose dialect is it really? That of the native 
land? Not even in his wildest dream, had the young lad ever 
been to the native land. The most we can call it the "native
land of his parents". That's about all.



　　我们为什么这样怀念故乡呢？许是她对于我们太好了吗？不，这
绝对没有的事。在我们的故乡，据最近调查统计，全邑人口，共有六
十九万左右，被抛弃在外的，就有七万六千余人。先就马来亚说，已
有四万五千七百九十四人，要是这个数字靠得住的话。我之为我，是
微乎其微的，如何值得她放在心上？我曾若干次投向她的怀抱，她固
然没有拒绝，也并不欢迎，只是冷冷地说一声：“你又回来了吗？”
当我觉得她的怀抱并不跟我想象中那么温馨的时候，我又悄悄地离开
了，她却也不追赶。说到物质，她所给我的，也只是一个空虚。我还
记得初次离家的时候，我的姐姐，特地替我准备一块“灶底土”，那
是从远年的厨灶中剔出来经过炉火煅炼几乎成为瓦片了的泥土。据说
，异乡作客，若因水土不服而生病的时候，研末冲服，便是活命的神
丹。这话我虽然不大相信，却也保留到相当的年月，为的是接受姐姐
的感情，同时也认为那是她——故乡给我唯一的纪念品。岁时更易，
人事变迁，到现在来，并此唯一的纪念品，也早就不知去向了，为什
么我还在怀念着她呢？



　　Why do we yearn this much for the native land? Is it 
because she treats us very well? That is definitely not the 
reason. In our native land, according to the latest census, 
the whole county has a population of 690,000, more or less. 
Those who have left the county number about 76,000. It is 
said that those who came to Malaya number 45,797, assuming 
this number to be reliable. I am but one tiny number among 
these statistics. Why should she hold me in any special 
affection? I have more than once returned to the fold of her
bosom. She did not reject me, but neither did I receive a 
warm welcome. She merely said rather coldly, "You are back 
again?" Of course her embrace is nothing like the warm and 
tender embrace of my imagination. I then quietly left. 
Neither did she entreat me to stay. In material terms, all 
she has given me is also a void. I recall the first time I 
left home, elder sister specially prepared for me a piece of
"stove bottom earth". This is a piece of earth taken from 
the spot on which the kitchen stove stands; over the years, 
the heat from the stove had so thoroughly baked the earth 
that it has been transformed virtually into ceramic tile. 
According to popular belief, if someone should fall ill in a
foreign land, because he is not accustomed to the foreign 
environment, the grinding from a piece of the "stove bottom 
earth" mixed with water is a life-saving miracle cure. 
Although I myself do not quite believe in this, I had 
nevertheless kept it for a considerable number of years 
because I was grateful for the care and concern shown me by 
elder sister. At the same time, it was the only piece of 
memento that can remind me of my native land. As the years 
pass, many things change. Today, the only memento from my 
native land is long gone. I do not even know where it is . 
Yet why do I still yearn for the native land ?



　　她具有人类一切的美，也具有人类一切的恶。假如你是画锦归来
的话，她也会伸出两臂，紧紧地拥抱，给你一个热烈的吻；要是黄金
百斤尽，黑貂之裘也破了，她就是一个十足的苏太太。中国抗战八年
，她还算侥幸，自始至终，鬼子都不曾去惹她，假如也像马来亚沦陷
了若干年月，我不知她的人性美和人性恶，都要发展到哪一步田地哩
！



　　She is the embodiment of all the good and the bad of 
humankind. If you should return with wealth and honour, she 
will reach out for you with both arms, hold you in tight 
embrace and reward you with a passionate kiss. If you should
return with all your wealth spent and your fur coat in 
tatters, she will ignore you and be every inch like the wife
of Su Qin. In China's eight years of fighting a war , she 
can be considered fortunate. The Japanese had never invaded 
her. If she had fallen into the enemy's hands, like Malaya 
did, I cannot imagine how the good and the bad in her would 
have been brought out by the trials and tribulations 
suffered by all during a military occupation.



　　当我每次回去的时候，远远望见里门，几乎就要一跃下车，俯伏
地上，嗅一嗅她的肉香。眼前所见任何一座山，一湾水，乃至一株树
，一片石，好像都是为我而生存的，她的确太好了，太可爱了！不上
几天，事实便会告诉我，山不过是那末一座，水不过是那末一湾，树
不过是那末一棵，石不过是那末一片，还不是和前度刘郎去时一模一
样吗？这又不能不使我不重上征车，过着流浪的生活了。然而，当你
倚装待发，哽咽着说声再会的时候，又不期然地要淌下几点伤离之泪
，便又浇着相思的种子，渐而萌芽发叶，长大起来，结成了离离的红
豆。我想，孔夫子当日一车两马，栖栖皇皇，忽而兴“可以出走”之
嗟，忽而发“归与归与”之叹，大概也是如此吧！



　　Every time I return to her , as I see the county gates 
from afar, I would just about leap down from the vehicle, 
prostrate myself on the ground to breathe her fragrance. The
hill before me, the bend in the river, even the tree, that
piece of rock , all these seem to have been preserved solely
for me. She is really good to me; I truly love her! But not 
more than a few days later , reality sets in. That hill is 
only a hill , that tree is only a tree, that bend in the 
river is only a river, that piece of rock is only a rock. 
Are they all not exactly the same as the day this "Mr 
Nobody" had left them? This will not discourage me from 
embarking on another journey to continue the wandering life 
once more. But as you make preparations for the journey, you
chokingly say goodbye, and unexpectedly shed a few drops of 
parting tears. Every time you do this, it is as if you are 
watering the seeds of nostalgia which will germinate and 
grow into trellis upon trellis of the "red beans" of love. 
I guess even Confucius is not spared this uneasy and anxious
state of mind whenever he embarks on a journey. Even he 
could not make up his mind, sometimes saying in excitement ,
"Let's go, let's go. Let's depart" and then changing his 
mind suddenly, impatiently commanding, "Let's go home, let's
go home."



　　“流波恋旧蒲，行云思故乡”，古之诗人，当不至全是无病而呻
的，然而我们也可以从这一点发现哲理。原来波在流着，才想到旧蒲
之可恋；云在行着，才觉得故乡之可思。倘是止水停云，便应无此感
觉。“举头望明月，低头思故乡”，聪明的诗人，早又把故乡和明月
并提，无非是暗示我们，故乡就像明月一般，在可望而不可及中，使
人觉得可爱。三五之夜，皓魄当空，玉宇无尘，银河泻影，举头天外
，此时此景，谁不想入非非？可曾知道，广寒宫里，桂树阴下，嫦娥
姐姐，掩袖啜泣，感着碧海青天的寂寞，正在懊悔不及哩！“我欲乘
风归去，又恐琼楼玉宇，高处不胜寒”，我怀念故乡，又忆起东坡的
词句。故乡啊！你就这样永远地留在我的怀念中吗？



　　The ancient poem reads thus:

　　"The waves flow past and yearn the bygone shores,

The moving clouds long for the native land."

　　But this is not entirely something contrived by poets 
for their amusement or much ado about nothing. From this we
can discover a philosophical truth. It is only when the 
waves have flowed past the shores that they begin to miss 
and pine for them. It is only when the clouds have moved far
away from home that they miss the native land. If the waters
were stagnant, such emotions will not arise.

　　The wise poets of old have long coupled the moon and 
native land as a theme in their poems :

　　"Lifting my head, I see the radiant moon;

I bow my head and think of home."

　　There is an implication here that our native land is 
like the moon: that which you can see, you cannot reach. How
lovely thou art! In the night sky of the fifteenth day of 
the month, when the bright void of space is clear without a 
single speck of dust, the silvery Milky Way sweeps rapidly 
down; when you gaze into outer space into this beautiful 
scene at this time of the night, who could resist stepping 
into the world of dream where we can build our beautiful 
castles in the air? As we all know, in the crystal palace in
the moon above, under the shadow of the cassia tree, there's
the fairy Chang-e holding up her sleeve to conceal her 
sobs, saddened by the loneliness of the vast expanse of 
space , filled with regret that she can no longer return 
from whence she had come! As I yearn for my native land , I 
recall this verse from Su Dong-po:

　　"I would to ride the wind, homeward bound;

Yet I fear the Crystal Palace high above

Would be unbearably cold for me. "

　　Oh my native land! Thus will you forever remain in the 
bosom of my thoughts?