In that Faraway Land（Preface）
窗外有雨，屋子里显得比较阴暗和出奇的安静。我一个人在屋里走来走去，把花瓶里的水重新换了，把椅垫都扶正排好，把茶几上的玻璃擦得一尘不染。一直没有人按门铃，也没有人打电话来。在窗前和门后几次来回，终于再也找不到任何藉口之后，我只好在沙发上坐了下来。
It was raining outside, so the room seemed rather dark and unusually quiet. I walked back and forth in the room, changed the water in the flower vase, straightened up all the cushions, and wiped the tea-table glass until it was spotless. No one rang the doorbell, and no one called me on the phone. After pacing back and forth a few times in front of the window and behind the door, I finally could find no more excuses, so I had to sit myself down on the sofa.
心跳得厉害，我把这本簿子端端正正地放到眼前，不知道在翻开了簿子之后，将会看到些什么？将会有怎样的一种心情？
My heart was pounding wildly as I placed the photo album squarely in front of me. I didn’t know what I would see after I opened it, nor did I know what sort of feelings would come over me.
但是我唯一可以确定的就是，在一翻开之后，我就永远都不能再是从前的那个自己了。
But there was one thing I was sure of: once I opened the album, I would never be the one I used to be.
然后，我就翻开了它。
Finally, I opened it.
然后，就在第一页，就在第一张相片上，就是那一条河，就是外婆把年幼的我抱在怀中说过了许多次的那条河流――在一层又一层灰紫色的云霞之下，在一层又一层暗黑起伏的丘陵之间，希喇穆伦河的波涛正闪着亮光发着声响浩浩荡荡横无际涯地向我奔涌过来。
Then, right on the first page, right in the first photograph, was that river, that river that grandma spoke of so many times when I was a little child in her arms――Under layers of gray purple clouds, the enormous Xilamulun River rushes out to me from gently rolling hills with shining waves and powerful sound.
然后，我就开始痛哭，在一个阴暗而又安静的房间里，在一个微微有些阴雨的南国秋日的下午。
At that point I burst into tears, in a gloomy, quiet room on a drizzly afternoon in Southern China.
那一条河发源在我母亲的家乡――昭乌达盟克什克腾旗。
That river originates in my mother’s hometown――Hexigten Banner of Chifeng City in Inner Mongolia.
河流的源头藏在一处人迹未至的原始森林里，那里有林海千里，鸟雀争鸣，瀑布奔腾。从那些孤高巨大的寒带林木之间，希喇穆伦河逐渐汇聚，盘旋回绕，逐渐变宽变阔流向那一望无际的草原。
The source of the river is hidden in an untrodden primeval forest where the trees stretch on for hundreds of miles, where birds sing happily from morning till night, and where cataracts surge like galloping horses. Under those lonely enormous Frigid Zone trees, little rivulets flow together one by one, winding and weaving their way over the forest floor till they form a wide swell of swirling water gushing down into the endless grassland.
母亲说过，从木兰围场坐车到察哈尔的多伦，要经过三百里地的森林。母亲说：
“那真是一片树海，怎么走也走不完似的，夏天的时候坐车经过，整个森林都是香的，香味里面可以分得出哪些是花香，哪些是草香和树香。那时候我一直觉得连雾气和露水也好像都清香清香地留在我的衣服上。
My mother once said that if one travels by car from the Mongolia Enclose to Duolun County in Chahar province, one has to cross 150 kilometers of timberland. “It was a veritable sea of trees,” she said, “and it seemed one would never walk out of it. When we crossed over it in the spring, the whole forest was just bursting with fragrances. You could distinguish the scent of flowers from the scent of the grasses and that of the trees. I always felt even the fog and dews which left on my coat were full of fresh fragrance.
有一次车子刚出森林，到了一片大草原上，就看到整群野马奔跑了过去。其中有一匹毛色特别纯白，像雪一样的发白发亮，那时候我真希望自己不是坐在车子里、而是骑在那匹雪白的野马的身上。”
Once when the jeep we were riding in had just left the forest and entered a huge stretch of grassland, a whole herd of wild horses galloped past right before us. Among them there was one horse that had incredibly pure white hair, shining as white as snow and as bright as midday. At that moment how I wished I was not sitting in a jeep, but on the back of that snow-white stallion. ”
外婆告诉过我，母亲一直是个温顺体贴的孩子，而在把我们这五个子女带大的岁月里，母亲也一直是个温柔和安静的妇人，可是，我总是记得母亲在那次说起她的少年时光，说起她看到那匹白色野马时的神情。
Grandma once told us that my mother was always an obedient and considerate child, and that during the years that she brought up the five of us kids, she was always a gentle and quiet wife. But I would always remember her expression when she spoke of her youth, of the youth time when she caught sight of that wild white horse .
外婆去世已经有廿二年了，母亲也在这个春天离开了我们，逝者如斯，不舍昼夜，只有那条河是一直在那块土地上奔流着的。
It has already been twenty-two years since grandma passed away, and my mother also left us this past spring. Ah, how things pass away in this world, in this endless succession of days and nights! Only that river continues to flow on and on, over that same vast stretch of grassland.
朋友在信上说：“我曾经沿着希喇穆伦河走了一段路，我不知道换了是你，会作何感想？”
A friend wrote to me in a letter, “I once walked for a while along the Xilamulun River. If you had been in my place, I wondered, how would you have felt?
我想，我不必等走到那条河边时才开始思念，就在此刻，我心中就强烈地想念着她们，想念着我的母亲，和我母亲的母亲，想着她们漂泊的一生，想着她们原来并不该走上却又不得不走上的那样迢遥的一条长路。
I didn’t have to wait, I thought, until I walked along that river to begin to think of my family. Right at this moment I was thinking of them so intensely, thinking of my mother, of my mother’s mother, thinking of their lives of wandering, of that long, long road that they should not have set out upon in the first place, but in the end had to set out upon.
是不是会嫌太迟了呢？
Would I feel that it was too late?
我是说，如果，如果有一天我真的走到那条大河前面的时候，是不是已经太迟了呢？
What I meant was if . . . if one day I really came to that river, would it already be too late?
我用我整个的心来祈求，希望一切都不会太迟。希望那源头仍在，希望那千里松林仍是一片树海。阳光明亮，正是春末夏初，杂花生树，充满了清香。希望在树林边缘的大草原上，看到一群野马奔驰而过，其中有一匹飞奔如箭矢，毛色如雪般在太阳底下发着光亮。
I prayed with all my heart that everything would not be too late. I hoped that the source of the river would still be there. I hoped that the endless pine forest would still be a sea of trees. It was right at the end of spring and the beginning of summer, and the sun was shining brightly. There are flowers and trees everywhere, and the forest was brimming with fragrances. I hoped that on the great grasslands at the edge of the forest, I would see a herd of wild horses galloping past right before my eyes. And I hoped that among them there would be one horse galloping as fast as an arrow, its hair as white as snow, shimmering brightly in the rays of the sun.
In that Faraway Land（Preface）
窗外有雨，屋子里显得比较阴暗和出奇的安静。我一个人在屋里走来走去，把花瓶里的水重新换了，把椅垫都扶正排好，把茶几上的玻璃擦得一尘不染。一直没有人按门铃，也没有人打电话来。在窗前和门后几次来回，终于再也找不到任何藉口之后，我只好在沙发上坐了下来。
It was raining outside, so the room seemed rather dark and unusually quiet. I walked back and forth in the room, changed the water in the flower vase, straightened up all the cushions, and wiped the tea-table glass until it was spotless. No one rang the doorbell, and no one called me on the phone. After pacing back and forth a few times in front of the window and behind the door, I finally could find no more excuses, so I had to sit myself down on the sofa.
心跳得厉害，我把这本簿子端端正正地放到眼前，不知道在翻开了簿子之后，将会看到些什么？将会有怎样的一种心情？
My heart was pounding wildly as I placed the photo album squarely in front of me. I didn’t know what I would see after I opened it, nor did I know what sort of feelings would come over me.
但是我唯一可以确定的就是，在一翻开之后，我就永远都不能再是从前的那个自己了。
But there was one thing I was sure of: once I opened the album, I would never be the one I used to be.
然后，我就翻开了它。
Finally, I opened it.
然后，就在第一页，就在第一张相片上，就是那一条河，就是外婆把年幼的我抱在怀中说过了许多次的那条河流――在一层又一层灰紫色的云霞之下，在一层又一层暗黑起伏的丘陵之间，希喇穆伦河的波涛正闪着亮光发着声响浩浩荡荡横无际涯地向我奔涌过来。
Then, right on the first page, right in the first photograph, was that river, that river that grandma spoke of so many times when I was a little child in her arms――Under layers of gray purple clouds, the enormous Xilamulun River rushes out to me from gently rolling hills with shining waves and powerful sound.
然后，我就开始痛哭，在一个阴暗而又安静的房间里，在一个微微有些阴雨的南国秋日的下午。
At that point I burst into tears, in a gloomy, quiet room on a drizzly afternoon in Southern China.
那一条河发源在我母亲的家乡――昭乌达盟克什克腾旗。
That river originates in my mother’s hometown――Hexigten Banner of Chifeng City in Inner Mongolia.
河流的源头藏在一处人迹未至的原始森林里，那里有林海千里，鸟雀争鸣，瀑布奔腾。从那些孤高巨大的寒带林木之间，希喇穆伦河逐渐汇聚，盘旋回绕，逐渐变宽变阔流向那一望无际的草原。
The source of the river is hidden in an untrodden primeval forest where the trees stretch on for hundreds of miles, where birds sing happily from morning till night, and where cataracts surge like galloping horses. Under those lonely enormous Frigid Zone trees, little rivulets flow together one by one, winding and weaving their way over the forest floor till they form a wide swell of swirling water gushing down into the endless grassland.
母亲说过，从木兰围场坐车到察哈尔的多伦，要经过三百里地的森林。母亲说：
“那真是一片树海，怎么走也走不完似的，夏天的时候坐车经过，整个森林都是香的，香味里面可以分得出哪些是花香，哪些是草香和树香。那时候我一直觉得连雾气和露水也好像都清香清香地留在我的衣服上。
My mother once said that if one travels by car from the Mongolia Enclose to Duolun County in Chahar province, one has to cross 150 kilometers of timberland. “It was a veritable sea of trees,” she said, “and it seemed one would never walk out of it. When we crossed over it in the spring, the whole forest was just bursting with fragrances. You could distinguish the scent of flowers from the scent of the grasses and that of the trees. I always felt even the fog and dews which left on my coat were full of fresh fragrance.
有一次车子刚出森林，到了一片大草原上，就看到整群野马奔跑了过去。其中有一匹毛色特别纯白，像雪一样的发白发亮，那时候我真希望自己不是坐在车子里、而是骑在那匹雪白的野马的身上。”
Once when the jeep we were riding in had just left the forest and entered a huge stretch of grassland, a whole herd of wild horses galloped past right before us. Among them there was one horse that had incredibly pure white hair, shining as white as snow and as bright as midday. At that moment how I wished I was not sitting in a jeep, but on the back of that snow-white stallion. ”
外婆告诉过我，母亲一直是个温顺体贴的孩子，而在把我们这五个子女带大的岁月里，母亲也一直是个温柔和安静的妇人，可是，我总是记得母亲在那次说起她的少年时光，说起她看到那匹白色野马时的神情。
Grandma once told us that my mother was always an obedient and considerate child, and that during the years that she brought up the five of us kids, she was always a gentle and quiet wife. But I would always remember her expression when she spoke of her youth, of the youth time when she caught sight of that wild white horse .
外婆去世已经有廿二年了，母亲也在这个春天离开了我们，逝者如斯，不舍昼夜，只有那条河是一直在那块土地上奔流着的。
It has already been twenty-two years since grandma passed away, and my mother also left us this past spring. Ah, how things pass away in this world, in this endless succession of days and nights! Only that river continues to flow on and on, over that same vast stretch of grassland.
朋友在信上说：“我曾经沿着希喇穆伦河走了一段路，我不知道换了是你，会作何感想？”
A friend wrote to me in a letter, “I once walked for a while along the Xilamulun River. If you had been in my place, I wondered, how would you have felt?
我想，我不必等走到那条河边时才开始思念，就在此刻，我心中就强烈地想念着她们，想念着我的母亲，和我母亲的母亲，想着她们漂泊的一生，想着她们原来并不该走上却又不得不走上的那样迢遥的一条长路。
I didn’t have to wait, I thought, until I walked along that river to begin to think of my family. Right at this moment I was thinking of them so intensely, thinking of my mother, of my mother’s mother, thinking of their lives of wandering, of that long, long road that they should not have set out upon in the first place, but in the end had to set out upon.
是不是会嫌太迟了呢？
Would I feel that it was too late?
我是说，如果，如果有一天我真的走到那条大河前面的时候，是不是已经太迟了呢？
What I meant was if . . . if one day I really came to that river, would it already be too late?
我用我整个的心来祈求，希望一切都不会太迟。希望那源头仍在，希望那千里松林仍是一片树海。阳光明亮，正是春末夏初，杂花生树，充满了清香。希望在树林边缘的大草原上，看到一群野马奔驰而过，其中有一匹飞奔如箭矢，毛色如雪般在太阳底下发着光亮。
I prayed with all my heart that everything would not be too late. I hoped that the source of the river would still be there. I hoped that the endless pine forest would still be a sea of trees. It was right at the end of spring and the beginning of summer, and the sun was shining brightly. There are flowers and trees everywhere, and the forest was brimming with fragrances. I hoped that on the great grasslands at the edge of the forest, I would see a herd of wild horses galloping past right before my eyes. And I hoped that among them there would be one horse galloping as fast as an arrow, its hair as white as snow, shimmering brightly in the rays of the sun.