● 陈晴山 Chen Qing-shan
 译／陈敏良 陈敏华Trans. by Peter Chen, Michael Tan

字付良儿知悉：
Letter to my son Liang, be informed:

　　四月廿五日收到二十日来信，知道一切。

　　同月廿日曾写一信，因马来人新年邮局没有办公，廿三日投邮谅
已收到。

　　Received your letter of 20th on 25 April, contents 
noted. I wrote a letter on the 20th of this month; as the 
post office was closed for the Malay New Year, it was not 
posted until the 23rd. Trust it has now been received.

　　前天廿八号，即旧历三月初十日，你妈生日，因美瑜夫妇往新加
坡渡假未返；天生又赴星排片，恰好敏华由槟城返。我们只在福建公
会吃一餐羊肉面，参加约计六个人。美璇、信右、春莲均在座。今天
，他们都回来了，明晚打算要在老街场潮州店内叫两桌生锅，补行庆
祝，但是不请外人。除两家亲家亲家母外，都是自己人，怕人家破费
，不让训练所的学生们知道。妈说等你回来后，多开几座请些亲友，
再后，就等七十岁才来热闹。

　　Your mother celebrated her birthday on the 28th, the day
before yesterday, i.e., the 10th day of the 3rd month of 
the Lunar calendar. Mei-yu and her husband were on vacation
in Singapore and had not returned; Tian-sheng had also gone 
to Singapore to schedule movie films. Co-incidentally 
Min-hwa had just returned from Penang. With just the few of
us, we decided to have mutton noodles at the premises of the
Hokkien Association. There were six of us including 
Mei-xuan, Xin-you, Cun-lian. Today, they have all come 
home and tomorrow night, we plan to have two tables of 
"steamboat" at the Caozhou restaurant in Old Town, to 
celebrate. But no one outside the immediate family will be 
invited. Apart from the two sets of parents in-laws, 
everyone is from within the family. There is no wish to 
allow others to go to any expense and this will be kept from
the students of the tailoring school. Your mother says that
when you return, we will have a few more tables to invite 
relatives and friends. For a bigger celebration we will 
wait till her 70th birthday.

　　敏华的英文信写好了，随函附去。他写的大意，我约略懂得，文
法通不通，我不知道。大概是不通的你得空时替他改了寄回。

　　Min-Hwa has now written his letter in English which I 
enclose. I understand the gist, but cannot tell whether or 
not it is fluent and grammatical. It probably is not. When
you are free, do make the corrections and send it back to 
him.

　　美瑜昨由新加坡返，带来一件夏威夷衬衣，说要给你做生日的恩
物。妈妈预备了一个枕袋、两对袜、一顶毛织的睡帽、一件棉织运动
衣、四两咖啡粉，都包在内。

　　 Mei-yu returned from Singapore last night. She brought
back a Hawaiian shirt and said she would like you to have it
as a birthday present. Mother has got ready a pillow case,
two pairs of socks, a woollen knitted night cap, a cotton 
sports shirt, 4 tahils of coffee powder, all in a parcel.

　　上述各件，打算明日付邮，查前寄两批货，快的半个月，慢的一
个多月，方可抵澳，那末，明日寄出的一批，至迟六月中便可收到。

　　 It is planned to post the foregoing items tomorrow. 
According to our experience with the two previous parcels, 
it takes half a month at the quickest and one month or more 
at the latest for the parcels to be delivered in Australia. 
In that case the parcel we will post tomorrow will be 
received by you in mid June at the latest.

　　又阿如的通讯处，己由郑先生处抄来，英文字母太草，只得将原
件照贴如下：

　　妈听人家说澳洲没有米，向来不吃饭，不知是否？你到那边这末
久，有没有吃过饭？要是到中国人饭店去，可以买到否！如买不到她
下次想买多少米寄去，给你自己煮饭吃一两餐。

　　 We have obtained Ah Lu's address from (her mother) 
Madam Zheng. The handwriting in English is too cursive (for
me) to copy; the original written address is therefore 
pasted below.

　　 Mother heard others say that there is no rice in 
Australia, and no one ever eats rice. Is this true? You 
have been in Australia for so long and have not eaten any 
rice. If you go to a Chinese restaurant, can you not buy it
there? If you can't, we are thinking of sending you some 
rice so that you can cook it for yourself occasionally.

　　上次记得有寄一信，是四月十二日写的，那信中报告你家中曾收
过政府寄来支票三十元，并将收条寄给你签名，该信想已收到。妈说
，你的谊母此七月中生日，她想就该款中提出一部分买数码布送礼，
但这该由你自己寄信请妈代办方合人情。你信中可这样写：“谊母生
日，至时请代办礼物，就我自己的存款内支付”。大意如此，你自己
写好了，附家信中寄来妈可代办。

　　又吴君亦处，你到澳后，未知有无寄信与她，我们想寄信，但不
知她的通讯处，下次信中顺便抄来。余无别嘱，后信再谈。

　　 I recall that on 12 April, I wrote you a letter which 
informed you that we received a government cheque addressed 
to you for $30. A receipt was forwarded to you for 
signature; trust you have received it. Mother says that 
your godmother's birthday will be in mid July. She is 
thinking of using part of your money to buy a few yards of 
cloth for her, but you yourself should write to make that 
request. Then only would it be proper. Your letter could 
say "When godmother's birthday comes, please arrange for a 
present for her on my behalf, drawing on the money that I 
have with you." This can be gist of your letter. After 
you've written it, enclose it with your letter home so that 
mother can make the arrangements for you.

　　 With regard to Madam Wu Jun-yi , have you written to 
her since you arrived in Australia? We would like to write 
to her, but do not know her address. Let us have her 
address in your next letter home. Any other matter can be 
discussed next time.

一九五八年五月一日父字
Written by father, 1 May 1958.

家书之四

　　1958年2月至1960年1月陈晴山总共写了大约20封信给到澳洲读书
的长子陈敏良。陈敏良选了其中7封在本报陆续发表，选择准则是它
们都反映了其父“为师”的一面。每一封选刊的信件都能让人学到些
东西，信件的语调是循循善诱且具鼓励性。本期选刊第四封家书。

　　Altogether, Chen Qing-shan wrote Peter Chen 20 letters 
between February 1958 and January 1960. Peter Chen left 
home for studies in Australia in February 1958. He has 
selected 7 of these letters for publication. They were 
selected because they all portray the "teacher" in his 
father. A lesson or lessons could be drawn from each of the
letters selected. The tone of the letters is always 
patient, often encouraging. The forth letter is printed 
today.