I am at peace with the land and the conditions of my life. But I feel a great pity for my wife. I have been forcing silence upon her all these years, yet she has not once complained of anything.
对于这片土地，对于我的生活境况我感到满足。但对于老伴，我觉得对不住她，这些年来我对她一直沉默寡言,而她从未抱怨过什么。
I wanted to have a lot of children and grandchildren around me but now cities and foreign lands have attracted my children away and it seems that none of them will ever come back to live here again. To whom shall I give these rice fields when I die? For hundreds of years this strip of land has belonged to our family. I know every inch of it. My children grew up on it, catching frogs and mud crabs and gathering flowers. Still the land could not tie them down or call them back. When each of them has a pair of jeans, they are off like birds on the wing.
我希望自己身边儿孙成群，但如今城里和国外的生活吸引着我的孩子们，让他们离开了我们，而且看来他们没有一个是会再回到这儿生活了。那我死后这些稻田留给谁呢？几百年来我 们家一直拥有这片土地。我熟悉我的每一寸土地。我的孩子就是在这儿长大的，他们捉青蛙、逮泥螃蟹、采花朵。但这片土地还是没能拴住他们或是召回他们。当他们每人有了一条牛仔裤后， 就像鸟儿一样飞走了。
Fortunately, my wife is still with me, and both of us are still strong. Wounds heal over time. Sickness comes and goes, and we get back on our feet again. I never want to leave this land. It's nice to feel the wet earth as my fingers dig into the soil, planting rice, to hear my wife sighing, "Old man, if I die first, I shall become a cloud to protect you from the sun." It's good to smell the scent of ripening rice in November. The soft cool breeze moves the sheaves, which ripple and shimmer like waves of gold. Yes, I love this land and I hope one of my children comes back one day to live, and gives me grandchildren so that I can pass on the land's secret messages to them.
幸运的是，我老伴还在我身边，我们俩身体还很硬朗。伤口会随着时间愈合的。疾病来了 又去，接着我们又能站起来。我从未想过要离开这片土地。我喜欢将我的手插进潮湿的泥地里栽稻子。我喜欢听我的老伴叹息地说"老头子，如果我先死了，我要变成一片云来为你遮太阳"。我喜欢闻11月份成熟的稻米散发的香味。凉爽的微风吹拂着水稻，水稻像金色的海浪 一样起伏着。是的，我爱这片土地，我希望有一天有个孩子会回来生活，给我生几个孙子孙女，这样我就可以把这片土地的讯息传递给他们了。