岸上的陌生人/Stranger on the Shore III

最後一次回到故居去, 碼頭早已被棄置不用久矣, 在島的另一端建立一個新的建築物, 在裡面等船, 再不用日曬雨淋, 然而再也看不到山光水色, 感覺不到海風徐徐送來, 混雜在等船的人群裡, 沒有一張是認識的臉。

經過這麼多年, 以為自己已經很堅強, 以為自己已經忘了很多人和事, 事實上, 在島上我發現自己回到以前一樣, 好像從來沒有離開過, 只是我環顧四周, 我已認不出任何人, 對這個我生于斯長于斯的地方而言, 我只是一個陌生人…一個過客。

—1995年2月1日發表在加京華報

The last time I returned to the island, that dock was no longer used. On the other end of the island, there’s new terminal, where you can wait inside, out of the sun and the rain. But there’s no longer the view of mountainous islands or the feel of the soft sea breezes. I mingle among the waiting crowd, but there’s not a single face I recognize. In fact, I find I have returned to the same position I was before. It feels as though I’ve never left, and yet I can’t name anyone here. In this island where I born, I’m the stranger… a mere passerby. 

—published in winter 2019, Brick magazine