Where There is Sunshine Is Home

Xuefeng

Jan. 24, 2022

Hometown, the harbor where the soul is tethered,

The place where childhood memories linger, where I grew up wearing open-crotch pants,

Traveling thousands of miles always makes me yearn for home, with millenniums of longing in my hometown.

Leaving my hometown at the age of six or seven,

The place where I was born and raised,

It's not that I wanted to leave, but my hometown was submerged by a reservoir.

Since then, I've wandered in all directions,

Drifting to the ends of the earth,

Unable to find my hometown,

Wherever I go, I am a stranger.

With so many places traveled, it became natural,

What is my hometown and what is not, where there is sunshine is where I can settle down and make a living.

Africa, that is a miraculous land,

The freedom and happiness obtained there surpass the combined blessings from my hometown,

Despite Africa's poverty and backwardness,

Blending into its land, there is beauty and joy everywhere.

Harare, my second hometown,

The flames of the phoenix trees color the city red,

The primitive charm intoxicates the countryside,

Seventeen years of blossoming spring, fruiting autumn, coldness, and hotness,

Like free birds flying back and forth,

Endless joy and happiness,

The free soul transcends the material world.

It seems to have found the trace of paradise,

Eager to share the most beautiful scenes with my hometown,

Let the relatives in my hometown taste the abundant fruits I have gained.

Hundreds of relatives spread the word with great joy,

Pouring joy and hope into big home construction,

Day and night of labor, diligent dedication,

Scenic utopias rise in hometown like poetry and painting.

Smiling while walking, smiling while working, even smiling in dreams,

The feeling of happiness stirs every cell.

Suddenly, thunder strikes on a clear day,

Like wolves, the police, like ghosts, the officials,

Forcefully drive us out of our homeland.

Driven from Yunnan to Nanjing,

From Nanjing to Xinjiang,

Then from Xinjiang to Lijiang,

And from Lijiang to Guizhou,

Driven out of our homeland with nowhere to go,

Nine million six hundred thousand square kilometers of homeland,

No place for us to stay.

Dignity shattered,

Life turned into chaos,

The motherland cannot accommodate its citizens,

Hometown cannot accommodate its own people,

The court cannot tolerate free thinkers,

The mountain valleys cannot accommodate outsiders,

Sighing deeply, "Heavens! The world is upside down."

Relatives working and eating together are deemed "illegal",

Places where the elderly live happily are called "evil homes",

The right to survive is stripped away,

The right to migrate is stifled,

Light is called darkness,

Evil is hailed as justice,

Good citizens are treated as thieves,

Thieves are praised as models of life.

Enough! Where the East is dark, the West is bright, where the North is black, the South is bright,

Continue to wander!

If my hometown cannot accommodate me, I'll go to foreign lands,

Where there is food to eat and a house to live in, there is my homeland,

Where there is sunshine is home.