ChineseStudy

247. Written on Returning Home | He Zhizhang

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English translation

I left home when young and return only in old age. My native accent is unchanged, but the hair at my temples has grown thin and gray.

Here old means advanced in years, not first in rank. The unchanged accent and altered hair are set side by side: the voice still belongs to home, while the face bears the marks of time away.

The village children meet me but do not know me. Smiling, they ask where this guest has come from.

They call the returning man a guest without mockery; they have simply never seen him. Their innocent question makes the paradox complete: he has reached home, yet at home he is now a stranger.

赏析 · Commentary

没变的口音，改变的人 · The Accent Remains; the Person Changes

首句把少年离乡和暮年归来压在七个字里，中间几十年的经历全部省略。第二句只留下两项可听可见的证据：口音没变，鬓发已衰。一个证明故乡仍在他身上，一个证明时间已经过去。诗不追述仕途，也不渲染感伤，分量全在这组对照里。

The first line compresses a departure in youth and a return in old age into seven characters, omitting the decades between. The next line offers only two pieces of evidence, one heard and one seen: the accent remains, the hair has changed. One shows that home still lives in him; the other shows that time has passed. The poem needs neither a career story nor an explicit lament, because the contrast carries the weight.

为什么由孩子说出结尾 · Why the Children Speak at the End

孩子不认识诗人，是村庄代际更替最直接的证据。他们笑着发问，场面甚至亲切；正因为没有恶意，“客”字才更让人停顿。对孩子来说，这是第一次见面的外乡老人；对诗人来说，这是自己从小生活的地方。同一个人同时是归人和客人，故乡因此显得熟悉又陌生。

The children's failure to recognize the poet is the clearest sign that generations in the village have changed. They ask cheerfully, so the scene is almost welcoming; precisely because no harm is intended, the word guest lands with greater force. To them he is an old visitor seen for the first time. To him this is the place of childhood. He is both one who has returned and one who has arrived as a stranger.

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