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地之子

Son of the Earth

李广田

Li Guangtian

我是生自土中，来自田间的，这大地，我的母亲，我对她有着作为人子的深情。
我爱着这地面上的沙壤，湿软软的，我的襁褓；
更爱着绿绒绒的田禾，野草，保姆的怀抱。
我愿安息在这土地上，在这人类的田野里生长，生长又死亡。
我在地上，昂了首，望着天上。
望着白的云，彩色的虹，也望着碧蓝的晴空。
但我的脚却永踏着土地，我永嗅着人间的土的气息。
我无心于住在天国里，因为住在天国时，便失掉了天国，且失掉了我的母亲，这土地。

I was born out of the soil,
Out of the fields I come;
This great earth is my mother,
And for her I hold the love of a son.

I love the sandy loam of the ground, wet and soft —
That is my swaddling cloth;
Even more I love the green velvet of the crop and the weeds —
The nurse's embrace.

I wish to rest here in this land;
To grow in the fields of men,
To grow and to die.

Upon the earth I stand,
Head raised, and look up to the sky.
I look at the white clouds,
At the colored rainbow,
And at the blue of an open sky.

But my feet tread the earth forever,
And forever I breathe the smell of men's soil.
I have no wish to dwell in the kingdom of heaven;
For in the kingdom of heaven,
One loses the kingdom of heaven,
And loses my mother, this earth.
Listen

Meaning

A lyric in free verse in which the speaker declares himself 'son of the earth'. He describes a body that came out of the soil, was wrapped in it as in a swaddling cloth, grew in the fields like a child in a nurse's arms, and belongs to it by birth rather than by choice. Looking up he can enjoy the clouds, the rainbow and the blue sky, but his feet stay on the ground and his nose stays at the level of men's soil; he explains that the wish to live in heaven means losing both heaven and his mother. The poem turns on a single paradox: the beyond can only be entered by ceasing to be a son of the earth.

我是生自泥土之中、来自田间的人，这大地，就是我的母亲，我对她怀着作为人子的深情。我爱着这地面上的沙壤，湿软软的，那是我的襁褓；更爱着绿绒绒的田禾、野草，那是保姆的怀抱。我愿安息在这土地上，在这人类的田野里生长，生长又死亡。我在地上，昂起头，望着天上——望着白的云、彩色的虹，也望着碧蓝的晴空。但我的脚却永远踏着土地，我永远嗅着人间的土的气息。我无心住在天国里，因为住在天国时，便失掉了天国，且失掉了我的母亲，这土地。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The speaker says he was born out of the soil, calls the earth his mother, calls the wet sand his swaddling cloth and the green crop the nurse's embrace, and asks only to grow and die in the fields of men. [Structure] The poem is one long monologue in which four short sections succeed one another — origin, love of the ground, the cycle of growth and death, the look upward — and the last section reverses the first. [Imagery] The household uses every domestic word for the ground: swaddling cloth (襁褓) and nurse's embrace (保姆) turn soil into a mother's body, and this is what makes the closing rejection of heaven a filial rather than a philosophical decision. [Rhetoric] The poet's own reasoning is made explicit in the final stanza: 'I have no wish to dwell in the kingdom of heaven; / for in the kingdom of heaven, / one loses the kingdom of heaven, / and loses my mother, this earth.' [Effect] The poem's universal idea is stated in the most particular vocabulary available — sand, wetness, velvet green, the smell of soil — and its simplicity is deliberate: there is no literaryDevices, no quotation, and the effect of the ending comes from its plainness. The line 'My feet tread the earth forever' is the poem's thesis in two characters, and it is placed after the whole vision of cloud and rainbow so that it reads as the limit of that vision rather than as a complaint about it.

【白话串讲】 李广田写《地之子》：“我是生自土中，来自田间的”——“这大地，我的母亲，我对她有着作为人子的深情”——“我爱着这地面上的沙壤，湿软软的，我的襁褓”——他写地之子——我是生自土中。 【意象与手法】 以大地为母、泥土为襁褓、田禾野草为保姆的怀抱，把人与土地的关系写得血肉相连；又以“望天上”与“踏土地”的对照，写出拒绝天国、永恋人间的选择。深情质朴。 【情感与主旨】 李广田歌咏大地母亲的乡土抒情诗，以“地之子”自居，写对土地最深沉的眷恋，是现代乡土诗歌中咏赞大地的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“我是生自土中，来自田间的”写地之子自居；“这大地，我的母亲，我对她有着作为人子的深情”写对土地深情。

Background

Li Guangtian (1906–1999) was born in a poor farming family in Shandong and became one of the most accomplished prose writers of the Chinese twentieth century as well as a teacher of literature at Qinghua University. The poems of his late years, written after his professional confinement during the Cultural Revolution, are short, plain, and rooted in his rural childhood; 'Son of the Earth' is the best known of them. It belongs to a long line of twentieth-century Chinese poems and essays — from Wen Yiduo's and Ai Qing's earth imagery to the 'earth-bound' lyricism of the 1940s — in which the soil is made into a moral argument about where a Chinese life should be lived.

此诗为李广田早期的代表作，收于其诗集《汉园集》及后来结集的《行云集》。李广田（1906—1968），山东邹平人，现代著名散文家、诗人，「汉园三诗人」之一（与何其芳、卞之琳齐名）。他出身贫寒农家，自幼生长于鲁北平原的黄土地上，对土地有着天然的亲近，其散文与诗歌多取材于乡土，笔致朴实而情思深挚，被誉为「地之子」式的乡土作家。此诗写于其青年时期，正值中国现代诗坛从浪漫主义的感伤转向现实主义的乡土关怀之际。诗中「我是生自土中，来自田间的」的自述，与其农家出身完全相合；「我爱着这地面上的沙壤，湿软软的」「更爱着绿绒绒的田禾，野草」，则是对乡村生活记忆的真切复现。值得注意的是，此诗虽写乡土，却不失现代诗的思想深度——「但我的脚却永踏着土地」「我无心于住在天国里」的抉择，既有对土地的深情，又暗含对「乡土中国」这一文化根基的自觉认同，与同时期艾青的《我爱这土地》、戴望舒的乡土之作相呼应，共同构成了中国现代诗歌中「土地之恋」的重要一脉。

Art

The central device is a sustained metaphor that is never abandoned: the earth is a mother, the soil is a swaddling cloth, the crop is a nurse's embrace, and the fields are a family home. Once the metaphor is fixed, ordinary words take on extraordinary weight — 'wet and soft' is a tactile description of loam and a description of an infant's bundle at once. The second device is the turning of the poem, in which the final stanza looks like a statement about religion and is in fact a statement about identity: to accept paradise is to cease being a son, and since being a son is the whole of the speaker's being, he refuses. The poetry of the ending is in the double 'loses' — one loses the kingdom of heaven, and loses one's mother — which is phrased so that the words come together and contradict each other in a single breath.

此诗艺术上以「母与子」的比喻贯穿全篇，层层铺展对土地的深情。开篇「我是生自土中，来自田间的」，以两个「自」字写血统与出身的本源，「生自」「来自」连用，如溯源而上，把「我」与「土」的关系确立为不可分割的同一；「这大地，我的母亲」一句，点破全诗的比喻核心，以母亲喻大地，接下来的「襁褓」「保姆的怀抱」等意象皆由此生发——沙壤是襁褓，田禾野草是保姆的怀抱，人子与土地的亲情于此形象毕现。中段「我愿安息在这土地上，在这人类的田野里生长，生长又死亡」，写人从生到死的全程都与土地相依，「生长又死亡」四个字，把生命与土地的同一性写到了极致。后段忽起「望着天上」的遥望：「望着白的云，彩色的虹，也望着碧蓝的晴空」，一连三个仰望的意象，把视野拉向高远的天空，仿佛要为「地之子」安上一双望向天上的眼睛；然而「但我的脚却永踏着土地」一转折，以「但」字把仰望收回，落脚于「永踏着土地」「永嗅着人间的土的气息」的坚定。结句「我无心于住在天国里」更以「天国」与「土地」的对举，把全诗的乡土之情升华为一种哲学的选择——不是不能上天国，而是不愿；因为住在天国，便会失掉这土地，失掉母亲。全诗以母喻地、以地证母，虚实相生，深情与哲思交融，是现代乡土诗中最见匠心的篇章之一。

Allusions

The poem's thinking comes from the classical Chineseηικός convention in which earth is the mother and sky the father — from the 'Yijing' image of坤 as the receptive mother, through the Tang and Song writers who call the land 'this mother of mine', to the modern nationalist lyric that makes the soil the nation. 'The kingdom of heaven' (天国) carries the modern Christian term used in Chinese, and Li Guangtian's use of it in this sense is a recognizable gesture: the poem's argument is the oldest argument in Chinese thought, that the sage does not seek a realm beyond this one. The reference to 'the fields of men' (人类的田野) places the speaker inside a shared human agriculture rather than inside a private property.

此诗为现代新诗，不事用典，而传统的精神血脉自在其中。「土地母亲」的意象，在中国文化中源远流长：《周易》有「坤，地也，故称乎母」之说，以坤卦配地配母；《礼记》亦有「地载万物，天垂象」的天地尊卑观，大地从来被赋予母亲般的生育、包容之德。诗人「昂了首，望着天上」而「脚却永踏着土地」的姿态，暗合中国农业文明「脚踏实地」「安土重迁」的传统精神，也与《诗经》「民之初生」的农耕记忆一脉相承。诗中「生长又死亡」的生命循环，可通于陶渊明「死去何所道，托体同山阿」的安于大地之意；「望白云」「望彩虹」「望碧蓝晴空」而终归土地的抉择，又暗含《楚辞·远游》「轻举而远游」的升仙幻想与陶潜「托体同山阿」的清醒选择之间的对照——中国士人历来在「游仙」与「安土」之间徘徊，此诗明确选择了后者。「母亲的怀抱」式的意象，则带有五四以来「回到大地」「回到民间」的思想余韵，可见此诗虽为新诗，而「厚德载物」「民胞物与」的古典精神如地脉般深藏其间，使「地之子」的抒情获得了一种超越个人的文化厚度。

Commentary

Readers have generally treated the poem as a simple and sincere celebration and have forgiven it its brevity; a smaller number have noted that its rejection of heaven is also a rejection of any escape from history, and that this makes it less pastoral than it first appears. The poem is taught in mainland Chinese anthologies chiefly as an expression of love for the land and for ordinary labor, and it is often compared with Ai Qing's 'I Love This Land' for exactly that reason. Its final lines have also been quoted for their anti-religious or at least anti-otherworldly argument, which is why the poem occasionally appears in essays on twentieth-century Chinese secular thought.

读此诗，最动人的是那种「母子」之间不容置疑的深情。诗人不把土地当作风景来欣赏，也不把乡土当作怀旧的题材，而是把自己放回「土中」——我是生自土中的，大地是我的母亲，沙壤是我的襁褓，田禾野草是保姆的怀抱。这种「以身为子」的写法，使土地不再是外在于人的物，而是与人血脉相连的母体，爱土地便如爱母亲，不需要理由，不容分说。全诗的妙处，还在于它不回避「天上」的诱惑：诗人分明昂首望见了白云、彩虹与碧蓝的晴空，那正是人间的彼岸、超越的想象；但他随即把目光收回，「但我的脚却永踏着土地」，一「但」字，写尽选择的清醒与坚定。最深刻的是结句的思辨：「我无心于住在天国里，因为住在天国时，便失掉了天国」——原来天国不是遥不可及的去处，而就在这人间、这土地之上；一旦离开土地去求天国，反而连天国也失掉了。这既是乡土抒情，更是一种深沉的哲学：真正的归宿不在彼岸，而在此岸；不在天上，而在脚下的土地。李广田以「地之子」自居，终其一生保持着对土地与人民的深情，此诗正是他这种「向下扎根、永恋人间」的精神气质的诗化宣言，读来既亲切又庄严。

Prosody

Form Modern free verse (colloquial lines, repeated 'I' construction)现代自由诗（复沓排比的散文式分行）
Rhyme The poem keeps no rhyme scheme, but it is not unmusical: rhyme is approximated at the ends of several short lines — 'zhong' (from the soil), 'de' (my), 'qing' (deep love), 'huai' (embrace), 'wang' (to die), 'tian' (sky) — and the dominant music is the recurrence of the syllable 'wo' (I) at the head of eleven consecutive lines, which produces a refrain more insistent than any rhyme would.此诗为现代自由诗，不押严整的韵脚，而于排比与复沓的句式中见内在的韵律。全诗以「我」字领起多数诗行，「我是生自土中」「我爱着这地面上的沙壤」「我愿安息在这土地上」「我在地上」「我的脚却永踏着土地」「我永嗅着人间的土的气息」「我无心于住在天国里」，一连串的「我」字排比，构成一种往复回环的语势，如农人劳作时绵延的呼吸，节奏沉稳而执着。句尾「中」「间」「情」「怀抱」「死亡」「天上」「晴空」「土地」「气息」「天国」「土地」等字的自然协韵，更添一分质朴的音乐感。
Tone pattern Lines vary from four characters ('来自田间的') to twenty-odd, and the passages of short lines are set against two long, unbroken sentences, so the poem's pace quickens and slows with the speaker's emotion. The most effective cadence is the triple short line '望着白的云 / 彩色的虹 / 也望着碧蓝的晴空', where three four-character phrases run in parallel and then a fourth is added with 'also', producing the visual effect of looking upward through several objects. The closing sentences are the longest in the poem, and their long periods of subordinate clauses give the argument the weight of a deliberate decision.句式上，此诗以长短句错落相间：「我是生自土中，来自田间的」短促有力；「这大地，我的母亲，我对她有着作为人子的深情」由短而长，如深情之绵延；「我爱着这地面上的沙壤，湿软软的，我的襁褓」以「湿软软的」一词的插入，放缓节奏，仿佛抚摸土地；「望着白的云，彩色的虹，也望着碧蓝的晴空」三个短句连排，仰望之姿跃然纸上；「但我的脚却永踏着土地」以「但」字顿挫，复归沉稳；「因为住在天国时，便失掉了天国」的长句，如哲思之回转。全诗由缓而疾、由疾而缓，声调的起伏恰合情感由深情到仰望、由仰望到坚守的轨迹，是自由诗中以节奏表情的佳构。
Reading note The poem's prosody is that of the plain-spoken free verse that Li Guangtian wrote after 1978. There is no metre to observe, and what the poet substitutes for metre is a repeated grammatical opening: once the poem begins 'I was born out of the soil', almost every subsequent line begins with 'I' and almost every verb is in the first person, so the reader hears one voice continuing rather than a series of statements. This is the equivalent, in modern Chinese, of the classical habit of the repeated opening in the 'Guo Feng' songs.作为现代自由诗，《地之子》的声律之美不在格律，而在排比复沓的句式与朴素沉稳的节奏。全诗二十二行，以「我」的自我陈述一以贯之，构成了一个「地之子」的完整独白：从「生自土中」的身世自述，到「我爱着沙壤田禾」的情感铺陈，再到「生长又死亡」的生命认同，中间以「望着天上」的仰望宕开一笔，最后以「永踏土地」「失掉母亲」的抉择收束，层层推进，一气呵成。这种以排比句式为骨架、以自我陈述为血脉的结构，使全诗既有抒情诗的情感浓度，又有散文式的质朴亲切，正合李广田乡土散文大家的本色。就全诗而言，此诗以最朴素的语汇写最深沉的土地之恋，不事雕琢而情思深挚，是现代乡土诗歌中「大地母亲」主题的代表作，也可见中国现代诗人如何在继承「坤为地、地为母」的古典传统的同时，以白话新诗写出了新的时代情感。

Line by line

这大地，我的母亲，

This great earth is my mother,

这大地，就是我的母亲，我对她怀着作为人子的深情。

This earth, my mother,

这一句是全诗比喻核心的确立，也是「地之子」意象的基石。「这大地」以近指的「这」字呼之，仿佛大地就在脚下、就在眼前，亲切如在目前；「我的母亲」则以定语「我的」强调归属，把大地从万有的自然中单独分出，认作自己的母亲，占有性与亲情并具。以「母亲」喻大地，本是中国文化中「坤为地、地为母」的传统，但诗人不取抽象之义，而把它写成一个活生生的、可亲可感的「我的母亲」——不是概念的比喻，而是亲缘的认定。这一句之后，沙壤的襁褓、田禾野草的怀抱、安息于土地的愿望，都有了着落，全诗的深情都由这「母子」关系生发而来，是理解全诗的钥匙。

This line establishes the controlling metaphor and the cornerstone of the 'son of the earth.' 'This earth,' with the near demonstrative 'this,' addresses the ground as if it lay at one's feet, close and present; 'my mother,' with the possessive 'my,' claims the bond, singling the earth out from all nature and recognizing it as one's mother, possession and affection at once. To liken the earth to a mother is old in Chinese culture—'the earth as mother'—yet the poet takes the metaphor not abstractly but as a living, palpable 'my mother,' an affirmation of kinship rather than a concept. From this line onward, the sand and loam as swaddling, the field and grass as embrace, the wish to rest in the earth, all have their ground; the whole poem's feeling grows from this mother-child bond, the key to the piece.

但我的脚却永踏着土地，

But my feet tread the earth forever,

虽然我昂首望着天上的白云、彩虹与晴空，但我的脚却永远踏着土地。

yet my feet forever tread the earth,

这一句是全诗由仰望转向坚守的转折，也是「地之子」精神立场的表白。前面写「昂了首，望着天上」，一连三个仰望——白云、彩虹、晴空，视野何等开阔，仿佛要挣脱大地、飞升而去；「但」字忽转，把仰望收回，「我的脚却永踏着土地」——不是不能望，而是望过之后，依然脚踏实地。「永踏着」三字下得极重，写坚守的绝对与永恒，与「永嗅着人间的土的气息」相呼应，把「地之子」的抉择写得不留余地。这一转，既有对超越想象的清醒，又有对土地的执著：人可以仰望天空，但根必须扎在土里。以此写乡土之情，不流于恋土的情结，而升华为一种自觉的人生选择，是此诗思想最见深度的一笔。

This line turns the poem from gazing upward to standing firm, the declaration of the 'son of the earth's' spiritual stance. Earlier, 'head raised, gazing at the sky'—three upward gazes, at the white cloud, the rainbow, the clear sky, the view so wide one seems to break from the earth and rise. The word 'but' suddenly draws the gaze back: 'my feet forever tread the earth.' It is not that one cannot look up, but that, having looked, one still stands on the ground. 'Forever tread' is laid with great weight, writing the absoluteness and eternity of the resolve, answering the later 'forever breathing the scent of human earth,' leaving the 'son of the earth's' choice no room for retreat. The turn holds both a clear-eyed sobriety toward transcendence and a stubborn clinging to the soil: one may look at the sky, but the roots must be driven into the earth. It raises regional feeling from mere attachment to the land into a conscious choice of life, the deepest stroke of the poem's thought.

且失掉了我的母亲，这土地。

And loses my mother, this earth.

因为住在天国时，便失掉了天国，且失掉了我的母亲——这土地。

for in dwelling in heaven one has lost heaven, and lost, too, my mother, this earth.

结句以「失掉」二字收束全诗，把「土地母亲」的意象推向情感的最高点。「住在天国时，便失掉了天国」是诗人的哲学思辨：天国不是离开土地之后另寻的去处，而就在此岸的人间；「且失掉了我的母亲，这土地」则把思辨落回情感，以「母亲」呼应开篇，以「这土地」点明身份，完成了「母子」意象的闭环。值得注意的是「失掉了我的母亲」的沉痛——诗人不写「失去了土地」，而写「失掉了我的母亲」，把离开土地视为失去至亲，其间的深情，非亲身生于土中者不能道。以「且」字递进，更见分量：离开土地，不仅失掉天国，更要失掉母亲，两者孰轻孰重，不言自明。以此作结，全诗的乡土之情由亲切升为庄严，余韵深厚，令人回味。

The closing line gathers the poem in the word 'lost,' carrying the earth-mother image to its emotional height. 'In dwelling in heaven one has lost heaven' is the poet's philosophic turn: heaven is not a place sought after leaving the earth, but lies in this world on the far shore. 'And lost, too, my mother, this earth' drops the thought back into feeling, 'mother' echoing the opening, 'this earth' naming the identity, completing the closed circle of the mother-child image. Notice the grief of 'lost my mother'—the poet does not write 'lost the land' but 'lost my mother,' treating departure from the earth as the loss of a closest kin, a depth only one born of the soil can speak. The 'and' escalates the weight: leave the earth, and you lose not only heaven but your mother, the relative gravity needing no statement. Thus closed, the poem's love of the land rises from warmth to solemnity, a deep aftertaste to linger over.

Study

Word focus

生自土中 'Sheng zi tuzhong,' born out of the soil: the poem's first line and its foundation. The phrase refuses the alternatives available to a modern intellectual — not born of the heavens, not of nobility — and puts the origin inside the earth itself, which is what allows every later phrase (swaddling cloth, mother, nurse) to develop without a gap. Note the preposition 'from' rather than 'in': it conveys emergence, so the speaker was already inside the soil before he was outside it. 「我是生自土中」之「生自土中」，是此诗立骨的关键语，把人的本源直接安放在泥土里。「生自」一词，写生命的来源，不带一丝修饰，朴素而肯定；「土中」不说「土上」「土边」，而说「土中」，把自己放进泥土的深处，仿佛根系深扎其中，与土地同体。这一语，既是农家子弟出身的如实自白，也是诗人世界观的表达——人不生于天国，不生自虚空，而是生于土中，与泥土有着不可割断的血缘。以「生自土中」开篇，为全诗「大地母亲」的比喻奠定了坚实的根基，也是「地之子」这一自称最朴素也最深刻的注脚。
襁褓 'Qiangbao,' the swaddling cloth in which an infant is wrapped. Li Guangtian applies it to the wet sandy loam, so that the ground that feeds crops becomes the cloth that first held him. The metaphor is surprising without being strange, because the texture described — 'wet and soft' — is literally what the word evokes; the poet's skill is in noticing that this is also how a mother's body feels to a newborn. 「我爱着这地面上的沙壤，湿软软的，我的襁褓」之「襁褓」，本指包裹婴儿的衣被，诗人用以称沙壤，把土地直接写为抚育自己的襁褓，意象新奇而贴切。「湿软软的」四字，以触觉写沙壤的质地，仿佛那湿润松软的泥土真能如襁褓般温柔地包裹婴儿；「我的襁褓」则以「我的」确认归属，把土地与自我的关系拉近到出生之初。以襁褓喻沙壤，既见土地之温厚，又暗含「我之生自土中」的呼应——人一出生，便为土地所包裹，正如婴儿裹于襁褓。此词选喻之精，把对土地的爱写得具体、温柔而不失庄重，是此诗炼意的新颖处。
永踏 'Yong ta,' tread forever — 'yong' twice in the closing stanza, here and in 'Yong xiu' (smell forever). The word is what converts feeling into principle: love could have been expressed by 'love', but the poem chooses a pair of verbs of practice, so the speaker's relationship to the earth is defined by what his body keeps doing rather than by what his heart feels. It also supplies the contrast with the single moment of looking upward, which lasts only as long as a glance. 「但我的脚却永踏着土地」之「永踏」，是全诗意志的凝聚，以「永」字写坚守之绝对，以「踏」字写脚踏实地之姿。「永」字在此诗中凡两见（「永踏」「永嗅」），皆写一种不可更改的执著；「踏」字则写双足踩在土地上的实感，与上文「昂了首，望着天上」的仰望形成对照——人可以仰望天空，而脚必须永踏大地。以「永踏」写与土地的相依，比「爱」「恋」更见行动的坚定：爱是情感，踏是实践；只有双脚永远踏着土地、永远嗅着人间的土的气息，才算真正的地之子。此词下语斩截，把乡土之情从抒情升华为立身的原则，是此诗炼字最有力的一笔。

Related Reading

我爱这土地 I Love This Land 艾青 · 同为土地之恋的现代名篇，一以「我」报地一以「子」恋母，深情异曲同工 The two poems make the same argument about soil by different routes: Ai Qing's speaker sings with a hoarse throat until he rots into it, Li Guangtian's speaker simply declares himself its son; both make love of the land a refusal.

Ai Qing's best-known lines — 'Why are there always tears in my eyes? / Because I love this land so deeply' — follow a bird that dies and is buried in the fields, and the poem's love is bound up with hunger, war and suffering. Li Guangtian's poem lacks that historical urgency, and instead of a bird it has a mother; the relation is domestic rather than elegiac. Both, however, reach the same conclusion: the land cannot be loved from a distance, and the poet's resolve excludes any other home. Where Ai Qing's is a lament over a ruined country, Li Guangtian's is a quiet assertion of a vocation, and the contrast between grief and serenity is instructive.

艾青《我爱这土地》「为什么我的眼里常含泪水？因为我对这土地爱得深沉」，以嘶哑的喉咙歌唱土地，以「死后也要在土地里腐烂」的誓言写对土地至死不渝的爱，悲怆而深沉；李广田《地之子》则以「我是生自土中」的母子之情写对土地的血缘般的依恋，以「永踏着土地」「无心住在天国」的抉择写安土重迁的坚定。一以「爱」的泪水写土地，一以「子」的身份认土地；一沉郁悲怆，一质朴坚定。两诗同为现代乡土诗的杰作，而一个写土地的苦难与热爱，一个写土地的温厚与归依，并读之下，可见中国现代诗歌中「土地」意象的丰富内涵，也可见两位诗人在乡土抒情上的不同面向。

 大堰河——我的保姆 Dayan He — My Nurse 艾青 · 同为以「母亲」写乡土根源，一人一地，深情互证 Both poems make the origin of a life into a maternal figure, and the two 'mothers' — a river and an earth — are different halves of the same Chinese image; the poem's closeness is that of calling the same thing by another name.

Ai Qing's long poem opens 'Dayan River, my nurse' and goes on to make the river into a mother who suckled him and whom he can only call as an exile; the river carries mud, boats and the labor of a village. Li Guangtian writes that the earth is his mother and the soil is his swaddling cloth. The two figures are the same figure: in Chinese feeling water and loam are one mother's different garments, and both poets choose her as the source of life rather than as scenery. Where Ai Qing's poem is long, historical and full of actions, Li Guangtian's is short, unhurried and entirely inside one person's voice, and the difference in scale is part of the difference in tone.

艾青《大堰河——我的保姆》以「大堰河，是我的保姆」的深情呼唤，写一位乳母对诗人的抚育之恩，把「大堰河」这一名字与土地、村庄、乳汁相连，是艾青对乡土中国的深情礼赞；李广田此诗则以「这大地，我的母亲」的认定，把土地写为抚育自己的襁褓与怀抱。一以乳母写乡土，一以大地写母亲，虽一人一地、一实一虚，而其「以亲缘之情写乡土根源」的构思则一脉相通。并读两诗，可见现代乡土诗人如何把对土地、对人民的深情转化为「母亲」的意象，也可见李广田的质朴与艾青的沉挚在乡土抒情上的异曲同工。

 雪落在中国的土地上 Snow Falling on the Fields of China 艾青 · 同为对苦难土地的深情，一悲悯现实一坚守本源，乡土之爱同根而生 The two poems see the same ground from opposite ends of a single feeling: Ai Qing sees it suffering under snow, Li Guangtian sees it as the only home worth having; each holds one half of what the Chinese word 'land' can mean.

Ai Qing's poem opens 'Snow falls on the fields of China, / and cold is locking up China' and moves from the landscape to the farmer in his fur cap and the old mother bent in the doorway, so that the snow is an accusation. Li Guangtian's poem answers from the other side — the same soil is where he was born, where he grows, where he will die, and where his feet must stay. Neither poem denies the other's vision; together they show that in modern Chinese poetry the earth is both the ground of suffering and the ground of faith, and that a poet can take either tone for a whole lifetime.

艾青《雪落在中国的土地上》写「雪落在中国的土地上，寒冷在封锁着中国呀」，以铺天盖地的雪写国土的苦难与寒冷，对「戴着皮帽的农夫」「垂老的母亲」投以深沉的悲悯，是写土地与人民苦难的悲歌；李广田此诗则以「地之子」的自居写土地的温厚与抚育，从「湿软软的沙壤」到「绿绒绒的田禾」，充满对土地的真挚眷恋。一写苦难中的土地，一写抚育中的土地；一以悲悯写忧，一以深情写爱。两诗并读，可见中国现代乡土诗歌中「土地」的两副面孔——既是承载苦难的母亲，也是抚育生命的天，而诗人对土地的爱与忧，则始终贯穿其间。