Every Chinese Character Is My Home-town
By Xiang Xuehai (China)
Tr. Jinghao (UK)
Modified by REN Chenggang (China)
Bilingual recited by Li Min in Chinese and Mary in English
Audio synthesised by Li Min (China)
What is home-town in your heart?
It is the piccolo played on the back of a bull in childhood,
It is the Suona of joy in youth,
It is a clear and flowing river in front of the house,
It is the mighty reeds beside the village,
It is the Potala with fluttering prayer flags,
Or the vast expanse of prairie?
It's a galloping horse,
Or intoxicating singing?
It is the colour of Chinese painting,
Or the ink fragrance of calligraphy?
Where did you use to live,
Where is the land you love?
If you ask me,
What is home-town?
I might answer the Chinese characters as bright as stars,
A masterpiece of the past and present,
Immortal treasure of the ages,
Oracle bone, pottery, jade, bronze,
The picturesque pictographic symbols on those cultural relics,
As the sound of nature, it arouses my long-term nostalgia.
My industrious and intelligent ancestors,
Drilling wood to get fire and tortoise shell lettering,
To create a civilized home-town for future generations,
And to maintain a common spiritual home.
Simple, dignified and elegant Chinese characters,
Are my home-towns forever in my heart.
Every hieroglyph that has experienced the vicissitudes of time,
Every time through the wind and rain of history,
Calm and atmospheric characters.
Every link of strokes of the Chinese nation, in the past and future.
One dot and one downward stroke are so brilliant,
One horizontal bar and one stroke to the left are so miraculous,
They create eight thousand years of immortal history.
The teachings of Confucius illuminate the deserts of the human heart,
Lao Tzu's famous saying raises up the banner of morality,
Zhuang Zhou's butterfly dream,
Let us sigh with feeling of the thoughts of fantastic superman,
In the ocean of words,
Appreciate the elegant charm of Tang poetry and Song lyrics.
After reading the extraordinary courage of Tang Tai-tsung and Sung Tai-tsu,
We appreciate calligraphy
Of the golden hook and iron paddle of floating clouds and flowing water.
We admire heroes,
The spirit of a symbol of war and swallowing thousands of miles like a tiger.
How much inspiration does the historic books leave to future generations.
One stroke at a time builds up the faith of the nation's immortality,
Give the descendants of the dragon a broad spiritual home.
Write down the cry of self-improvement one after another,
Infuse us with indestructible bones and blood.
One by one heartfelt words ignite the vow to take off.
Lead us from ordinary to extraordinary.
The fragrance of Chinese characters flows in the hands of Chinese people,
No matter where in the world you are,
It arouses the hearts of homesick people all the time.
The deep thoughts of the home-town,
Turn into surging emotional waves,
To integrate into the singing of affection for the motherland.
Turn into a strong expectation for tomorrow.
From the moment of birth,
Chinese characters have flashed in my eyes.
The bright light has illuminated my heart,
The long-standing civilization is surging in the hot blood.
I know that I will never be separated from her in this life,
The relationship with Chinese characters will never change until death.
Every Chinese character,
Is my dearest home-town!
作者簡(jiǎn)介：
匡新哲，筆名香雪海。中國(guó)作家網(wǎng)會(huì)員，中國(guó)詩(shī)歌網(wǎng)藍(lán)V詩(shī)人。山東省散文學(xué)會(huì)會(huì)員，山東省書畫學(xué)會(huì)會(huì)員，山東省女畫家協(xié)會(huì)會(huì)員。濟(jì)南市美術(shù)家協(xié)會(huì)會(huì)員，濟(jì)南市書法家協(xié)會(huì)會(huì)員。文學(xué)作品發(fā)表在：中國(guó)作家網(wǎng)、《人民文學(xué)》、《人民視頻》、《收獲》、《詩(shī)刊》、《星星詩(shī)刊》、《齊魯晚報(bào)》、《散文詩(shī)》、《散文》等報(bào)刊雜志紙媒、微信公眾號(hào)和網(wǎng)絡(luò)平臺(tái)。
視頻朗誦者簡(jiǎn)介：
葛大慶，濟(jì)南人 ，山東省朗誦藝術(shù)家協(xié)會(huì)會(huì)員。曾獲山東省演講比賽一等獎(jiǎng)，二次獲得山東省演講朗誦比賽二等獎(jiǎng)。多次獲得濟(jì)南市演講朗誦比賽一等獎(jiǎng)。曾同中央電視臺(tái)心連心藝術(shù)團(tuán)同臺(tái)演出：詩(shī)朗誦鋼城之戀。
英譯者簡(jiǎn)介：
靜好，原名王靜，英籍華人。現(xiàn)任海外鳳凰詩(shī)譯社社長(zhǎng)兼總編、多次獲獎(jiǎng)，聯(lián)合國(guó)《世界生態(tài)》雜志顧問(wèn)。
Jinghao; real name: Wang Jing; a British Chinese; President and Editor-in-Chief of the Overseas Phoenix Poetry Translation Society，Awarded many times; consultant of the United Nations "World Ecology" magazine.
審譯教授簡(jiǎn)介：
任誠(chéng)剛，英語(yǔ)教授。1989年畢業(yè)于美國(guó)康科迪亞大學(xué)。系威斯康星大學(xué)研究生、旅居美國(guó)十四年。1998年回國(guó)在云南農(nóng)業(yè)大學(xué)外語(yǔ)學(xué)院擔(dān)任教學(xué)與測(cè)試室主任、云南省翻譯工作者協(xié)會(huì)理事、研究生高級(jí)文學(xué)翻譯等課程教學(xué)。發(fā)表論文50余篇。出版《韻譯天安門詩(shī)抄100首》《英韻周恩來(lái)朱德及陳毅詩(shī)選五十首》等譯著。
Ren Chenggang，professor of English, graduated from Concordia University US in 1989. He was a graduate student in University of Wisconsin and lived in the United States for 14 years. In 1998, he returned to China and worked at the College of Foreign Languages, Yunnan Agricultural University, serving as the director of the Teaching and Testing Office and is a council member of the Yunnan Translators Association. Teaching Advanced Lilterary Translation and other courses. He has published more than 50 papers. Translation books as rhymed versions of 100 Poems of Tiananmen and 50 selected poems by Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and Chen Yi etc.
金牌中文主播/音頻合成者簡(jiǎn)介：
黎敏，退休干部，【海外詩(shī)譯】中文主播和音頻合成師。熱愛(ài)朗誦，致力于用聲音傳播真善美。
Li Min, retired cadre, Overseas Poetry Translation Society Chinese anchorman of Overseas Poetry Translation Society and audio synthesizer. He loves reading and is committed to spreading truth, goodness and beauty with sound.
