家变成了四海

[Lu]

From a story by 陈村:

我常在家中做四海为家的梦。

于是，家变成了四海。

As I read this, this guy's feet are very wet now, since his house changed into all the seas. Am I reading it wrong?

Thanks for any input.

[aroundzw]

四海为家 means leaving home, and travel a lot. 四海 is a trope of the whole world except your home, but not the seas.

It's too hard to understand that "家变成了四海", you'd better give some context of what the passage is talking about

[whitekblackq]

I would think it means

He used to be at home dreaming of all different types of ways to improve life for his family.

Now his family has scattered in all different directions (like the 4 seas).

[aroundzw]

to whiteblackq:

I'm sure it has nothing to do with scattered family

maybe he means that he move very often but never go back home again, and the world has became his home

[david808]

no clue for 家变成了四海. As one user mentioned, we need a little context here.

[chenpv]

I always daydream at home that I could vagabond.

Now that, this home seems to be the whole world outside.

[whitekblackq]

last translation sounds good to me

[vampire]

I think the writter played a word game. the chenyu 四海为家 means leaving home, wondering from one place to another, but when broken apart, it becomes "四海" 为 "家", sihai is home, and since the prose <家的闲话> is talking about home, it's funny to say so

[Lu]

There isn't much context, it's one 'chapter' of a short story called, as one poster said, 'Jia de xianhua'. It's not about family, it's about various aspects of a house.

I was also thinking about translating 'sihai' as 'the seven seas', but I see that I have been reading it wrong, chenpv's translation makes a lot more sense.

Thanks all!

[skylee]

Think Paul Young, "Wherever I lay my hat, that's my home".

(One of my favourite songs. And I do keep travelling. )

[Philee]

四海 the four seas come from an ancient world view that Chinese believed the land is surrounded by seas in four different directions. So there are faraway four seas in the edges of the world. And if you say you are going to the four seas that actually means you will leave very away from home. Gradually 四海 begin to take the meaning of places far away from home but not really refer to legendary seas.

陈村 is a famous contemporary writer and wrote many delightful pieces. What he wrote below looks like a poem.

我常在家中做四海为家的梦。

于是，家变成了四海。

I often dreamed to wander around the world at home

And my home becomes the world.

Why his home becomes the world? That's because he wanders around the world by dreaming at home! So the poet thinks his home for him is just the world outside. But what the poet wants to express behind its literal meaning? it's not very clear.

I think it is of misty poetry, a very important genre of contemporary Chinese literature that you can't figure out the actual meaning of the poem but the poem itself is still beautiful and indicating some profound but vague meaning.

There are more poems like that. One of the most famous is :

A GENERATION

BY Gu Cheng

Dark night grant me a pair of dark eyes

But I use them in search of light

一代人

作者 顾城

黑夜给了我黑色的眼睛

我却用它寻找光明

[Lu]

I agree that it is quite poetic. In the light of the rest of the essay, I read it as: I used to dream about wandering the world, but when I look around my house, I realize that there is so much to discover right here in my house, I don't really need to wander anymore.

(In another book, he wrote some travel stories, so he did get to wander at least a little bit.)

I don't agree that one can't figure out the actual meaning in misty poetry, I think it can be much more difficult in some other poetry. But thanks for posting that poem, I hadn't read it for some time and it is still beautiful.

PS Any recommendations of especially delightful Chen Cun stories? I'm looking for another good one to maybe translate.

[Li Yuzuo]

四海=家

then 家=四海, we all know that sometimes the poet say something again and again, but means nothing. what they really want to do is just confused us.

when i am at home , i always dream i can tramp the world, caring nothing, treat the world as my home, my house.

but i couldn't, then my house change to be the world in my mind.