1980年夏天我头一次回到度过童年的广东老家，探望离别30多年，受尽苦难的母亲及家人。这首＜罗湖车站＞便是我在回香港的火车上，恍惚的脑海里以边界的罗湖车站为舞台，演出的一幕时代悲剧。发表後虽有一些评文提到过它，包括复旦大学的陆士清教授的极力推崇，说这才是真正的乡愁诗，但一般读者似乎并没特别注意到它。很高兴看到它被收入《中国当代诗人代表作名录》，虽然不清楚这是哪个机构或谁编辑出版的。 

罗湖车站

──返乡组曲之八

我知道

 那不是我的母亲

 我的母亲

 她老人家在澄海城

 十个钟头前我同她含泪道别

 但这手挽包袱的老太太

 像极了我的母亲

我知道

 那不是我的父亲

 我的父亲

 他老人家在台北市

 这两天我要去探望他

 但这拄着拐杖的老先生

 像极了我的父亲

他们在月台上相遇

 彼此看了一眼

 果然并不相识

离别了三十多年

 我的母亲手挽包袱

 在月台上遇到

 拄着拐杖的我的父亲

 彼此看了一眼

 可怜竟相见不相识

 

 

AT LUOHU BORDER STATION, SUMMER 1980

I know she is not my mother
my mother is in Chenghai
I bade her a tearful goodbye ten hours ago
but this old woman with a cloth bundle in her hand
looks so much like my mother

I know he is not my father
my father is in Taipei
I am going to visit him in a couple of days
but this old man staggering with a cane
looks so much like my father

they meet on the platform
glancing at each other
and are indeed strangers

having been separated for over thirty years

my mother with a cloth bundle in her hand

encounters my father staggering with a cane

on the platform of this border station

they exchange glances

and, alas! don’t even recognize each other

 

 

*Like so many Chinese families, my family was split by the Chinese civil war.

My father with my elder brother and myself lived in Taiwan, while my mother with the rest of the family remained in China Mainland.  During the summer of 1980, I visited my mother for the first time in more than 30 years.  This poem was conceived on the train waiting to depart for Hong Kong at Luohu（Lo Wu）Station which was then China's only door opening  to the outside world.