如何远离我所爱的地方和人。约瑟夫·布罗德斯基（Joseph Brodsky）是对的。纳博科夫和康拉德也是如此。他们是从未回来的艺术家。每个人都以自己的方式尝试治愈自己的国家。您留下的东西已经消失了。返回，您将面临您所珍视的缺席或污损。但是Dmitri Shostakovich和Boris Pasternak和Naguib Mahfouz也是正确的：永远不要离开家园。离开，您与源的连接将被切断。您将就像一个死去的后备箱，坚硬而空心。当您无法离开并且无法返回时，您会做什么？
(how to live away from places and people I love. Joseph Brodsky was right. So were Nabokov and Conrad. They were artists who never returned. Each had tried, in his own way, to cure himself of his country. What you have left behind has dissolved. Return and you will face the absence or the defacement of what you treasured. But Dmitri Shostakovich and Boris Pasternak and Naguib Mahfouz were also right: never leave the homeland. Leave and your connections to the source will be severed. You will be like a dead trunk, hard and hollow. What do you do when you cannot leave and cannot return?)
文本反映了与离开一个人的家园及其对身份和归属感的影响相关的复杂情绪。它讨论了各种文学人物的观点，例如约瑟夫·布罗德斯基，纳博科夫和康拉德，他们宁愿离开自己的国家寻求慰藉。他们面临着令人心碎的现实，即返回意味着面对损失和变化，因为珍惜的回忆和地方常常消失。这说明了移民带来的深刻脱节感。
相反，像德米特里·肖斯塔科维奇（Dmitri Shostakovich）和鲍里斯·帕斯特纳克（Boris Pasternak）这样的声音提出了保持与一个人的根源相连的重要性。他们警告说，离开会破坏重要的联系，使一个像空心树干一样毫无生气的人。这给个人造成了一个困境，因为由于各种压力，由于各种压力而无法返回他们曾经认识和爱的人，这会陷入困境。作者Hisham Matar封装了这场斗争，质疑在离开和返回时应该做什么充满痛苦。
