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故鄉

My Old Home

by Lu Xun

A return home brings childhood memories and changed lives together.

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Original language: ChineseLevel: Advanced3,479 characters · ≈ 14 minSource: Wikisource

Sample: three-line reading

Each word has its meaning in this sentence underneath, and each sentence has a full translation. Read the original and glance down only when you need to.

我I冒了braved (something unpleasant)嚴寒bitter cold回到returned to相隔separated by (a distance)二千two thousand餘里odd li (a Chinese unit of distance)別了left / parted from (for a period)二十餘年more than twenty years的(attributive particle linking the description to 故鄕)故鄕hometown去went (there) / headed to
I braved the bitter cold and returned to my hometown, over two thousand li away, which I had left for more than twenty years.
時候time既然是since it was深deep冬winter漸近drawing near故old (as in old hometown)鄕hometown時when天氣weather又again陰晦gloomy了(change-of-state particle)冷cold風吹wind blew進into船艙boat cabin中inside嗚嗚wu-wu (sound)的(adverbial particle)響sounded從from篷awning隙gap向外outward一望took a look蒼黃pale yellow的(possessive/modifying particle)天底下under the sky遠近near and far橫lay scattered着(progressive particle)幾個a few蕭索bleak的(modifying particle)荒村deserted villages沒有without一些any活living氣breath
It was deep winter; as I drew near my hometown, the weather turned gloomy again. Cold wind blew into the boat cabin, making a wu-wu sound. Looking out through a gap in the awning, under the pale yellow sky, a few bleak, deserted villages lay scattered near and far, without a breath of life.
我的心my heart禁不住could not help; could not restrain悲涼desolate and sad; bleak起來了began to (change of state), now
I could not help feeling sad and cold at heart.
阿Ah! (an exclamation)
Ah!

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About the book

"My Old Home" is a memoir-style vernacular story by Lu Xun, written in January 1921 and published that year in New Youth. It recounts the narrator returning to his hometown in severe cold to move out of the old house, weaving in many memories, with vivid portrayals of figures such as Runtu and Yang Er-sao. Selected for Chinese and Japanese school textbooks, it remains a widely read classic.

About the author

Lu Xun (25 September 1881 – 19 October 1936), pen name of Zhou Shuren, was a Chinese writer and a leading figure of modern Chinese literature, working as a novelist, critic, essayist, poet, and translator known for his sharp, satirical style. In 1918 he published Diary of a Madman, the first novel in vernacular Chinese, helping pioneer the New Culture Movement.

Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: 故鄉 (小說) (CC BY-SA)

How the glosses are made

Word glosses and sentence translations are generated in context by AI models (DeepSeek and Zhipu GLM), and every word is checked to have a gloss. AI can make mistakes; you can report problems from the book page.

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