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Excerpt from "Mr. Chen Panling Memorial Collection" (陳泮嶺先生紀念集) , page 51
Please note: Extra words added to the posture description for clarity, as well as additional notes and comments, appear in [square brackets]. Text in (regular parentheses) is the author's text. Highlighted text indicates text where I am not confident in the translation.
二六 卜居台中
車跡馬塵，世亂難尋乾淨土；天涯海角，避秦猷有問津人。臺灣，自鄭成功開闢至今，近三百年，淪於日帝者五十餘，隨勝利之聲，臺灣光復重回到祖國的懷抱，不過祇五年，我們又從祖國的懷抱來到臺灣。臺灣，是一個美麗的地方，東濱太平洋，南鄰菲律賓，東北接近琉球群島，西隔臺灣海峽卻對正中華的一片大好河山。回歸線通過嘉義，南熱北多雨，我遷擇了在臺灣的中部文化城－臺中市，披蕉風，乘椰蔭，借舊曲，作新巢，於今轉瞬十餘載，耿耿孤臣孽子心，頭上白髮搔更短，英雄壯志久沉淪！
島中歳月，海外風光，雛兒女次第長成，雲超在臺中市一中畢業後，考取政工幹部新聞專科第七期畢業後，又以陸軍少尉分發電臺，擔任新聞廣播等工作，德範亦自臺北銘傳女子商專畢業，雲慶、雲尚皆將於本年秋季，完成高中學業；次女德清，於復旦大學畢業，卅八年應同學之請，先來臺灣，在臺北成功中學任教，時常回家團聚，共享天倫之樂。慰老懷所繫，惟未了向平之願！
26. Choosing to Live in Taichung
The trail [behind] a horse-drawn carriage is dusty. In the age of chaos, it is difficult to look for clean soil.
We left from Cape Haijio in Hainan to escape danger and planned to make inquiries. Since Zheng Chenggong [a.k.a. Koxinga] opened up Taiwan [by taking it from the Dutch] nearly 300 years ago, it has been ruined by [the rule of] more than 50 Japanese emperors. After the sound of victory [against the Japanese], Taiwan recovered and returned to embrace the motherland. However, only five years later, we came from the motherland to embrace Taiwan.
Taiwan is a beautiful place. It borders the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Philippines to the south, the Ryuku Islands in the northeast, and the Taiwan Strait to the west. In the interior, there are great rivers and mountains. The Tropic of Cancer [or Northern Tropic] passes through Jiayi County, and it is hot in the south and rainy in the north. I moved to Taichung, which was Taiwan’s central cultural city. Taichung, where the wind spreads out the banana leaves and the horses take shade under the coconut tree palms. To borrow from an old song, I made a new nest. Now, more than ten years later, which seems like the blink of an eye, I am writing [this memoir]. I feel like “a friendless official or a concubine’s son” [i.e., isolated]. There is even less white hair on my head, and my hero’s ambition is long lost!
Over time on the island, with its overseas scenery, the young sons and daughter grew up. After graduating from No. 1 Middle School in Taichung, Yunchao passed the entrance exam to be a political news specialist. As a second lieutenant in the army, he was assigned a job as a radio broadcaster. Working as a governmental news broadcaster, Defan graduated from Taipei’s Ming Chuan Women’s College as a journalist and broadcaster. Both Yunqing and Yunshang will brilliantly pass their high school studies in the fall of this year.
My 2nd oldest daughter, Deqing, graduated from Fudan University [in Shanghai]. In the 38th year of the Republic [~1949], she was asked to come to Taiwan to teach at Taipei’s Chenggong Middle School. She frequently comes home to share in family love and joy. It brings comfort to this old heart, but she is not married yet!
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