“悲剧不在于事物的破碎，而在于事物没有得到修复。”

“悲伤好过恐惧。恐惧是一段旅程，一段可怕的旅程，而悲伤至少是一个终点。”

“当风暴来临时，那人会担心他的房子。但当房子被毁时，他知道要做什麼。对于风暴，他无能为力，但被摧毀了，他可以重建房子。”

“哭泣吧，亲爱的祖国，为那未出生的孩子，他是我们恐惧的继承者。愿他不要过于热爱这片土地。愿他在水流过指尖时不要笑得太开心，也不要在夕阳将草原染成火红时过于沉默。愿他在听到故乡的鸟儿歌唱时不要太感动，也不要把太多的心思放在一座山或一条河谷上。因为如果他付出太多，恐惧会夺走他的所有。”

以上是小说《哭乡》中的一些引言。我是在它首次出版27年后才读到这本书，或者更准确地说，这是我中四时的文学课本之一。从那时起，其中一些感人的段落偶尔会回到我的记忆中，有时会断断续续地背诵，尽管有些支离破碎，因为我在考试后再也没有读过艾伦佩顿的这本书。

经过四十年的时间，我终于找到了这本课本，并怀着某种无以言喻的热情重温它。

(2021年9月1日)

“The tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that things are not mended again.”

“Sorrow is better than fear. Fear is a journey, a terrible journey, but sorrow is at least an arrival.”

“When the storm threatens, a man is afraid for his house. But when the house is destroyed, there is something to do. About a storm, he can do nothing, but he can rebuild a house.”

“Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child who is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes the veld red with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him if he gives too much.”

The above are quotes from the novel Cry, the Beloved Country. I read it 27 years after its first publication—or, to put it more accurately, it was one of my Form 4 literature textbooks. Since then, some heart-touching paragraphs have occasionally returned to my memory. Sometimes, I recite them, though fragmented and indistinct, for I have not read this book by Alan Paton again since I passed my exams.

Eventually, after four decades, I found the textbook again with a renewed sense of indescribable passion.

(September 1, 2021)