上小学的时候，课堂上老师提到“葡萄牙”，我觉得这个国家的名字很有意思1，怎么会以“葡萄”命名？ 且是一个“老牌帝国主义国家”，在遥远的欧洲，曾经航海很厉害，有很多殖民地，但日后衰落了。

When “Portugal” was mentioned by my primary school teacher in class， I was curious to know how come a country could be named after “grapes” （since “Portugal” in Chinese is pu tao ya， and pu tao share the same characters as “grapes”）. And I was told that it is an “old imperialist country”， located in faraway Europe， which used to be an important maritime power with many colonies in the past but has been in decline for a long time.

后来我有幸到澳门一所大学任教，走进了这座曾被葡国占领了四百余年的城市。从巴洛克风格的建筑、葡萄牙风味的美食、土生葡人，到身边的葡国同事，使我觉得对于葡萄牙触手可及2了，尽管在地理上依旧遥远。于是，我有兴趣更多地了解该国的历史、政治、经济、文化、语言等。那时，澳门“回归祖国”已将近三年，有很多“中葡论坛”之类的活动，我都积极参加，更拉近了我与葡国的心理距离。

Later， I was fortunate enough to be invited to teach at a university in Macao， a city occupied by Portugal for more than four hundred years. At the time， I was overwhelmed by things Portuguese， such as the Baroque-style architecture， Portuguese cuisine， locally-born Portuguese， not to mention my Portuguese colleagues. It seemed that Portugal was within reach， despite its geographical distance. This sparked my interest in learning more about the country’s history， politics， economy， culture， language and more. Since Macao had just been “returned to its motherland” for nearly three years， there were many activities related to “China-Portuguese Forums” in which I was actively involved， bringing me psychologically closer to Portugal.

其实“葡萄牙”的名字源于拉丁文，意为“港口”，可见它与海洋的渊源。原来，这是一个有着悠久历史和丰富文化的南欧国家。公元前218年，它被纳入罗马帝国，随后在公元5世纪被日耳曼人征服，又在公元8至12世纪被摩尔人统治了400余年。直到1249年，葡萄牙才驱逐了所有入侵者，基本形成了今天的版图。15至16世纪是葡萄牙的辉煌时期，凭借其强大的航海实力，他们绕过好望角，建立了一个横跨亚洲、非洲和南美洲的帝国，成为当时的世界强国。

The name “Portugal”， in fact， comes from Latin （Portus Cale）， meaning “port”， showing its connection with the sea. It turns out that this is a Southern European country with a long history and rich culture. It was incorporated into the Roman Empire in 218 BC， conquered by the Germanic peoples in the 5th Century， and ruled by the Moors from the 8th to the 12th centuries， for over 400 years. It was not until 1249 that Portugal expelled all invaders and roughly formed today’s territory. The 15th and 16th centuries witnessed Portugal’s glorious period. With its strong maritime power， it rounded the Cape of Good Hope and established an empire spanning Asia， Africa and South America， becoming a world power at the time.

在澳门期间，我有机会到过马六甲海峡，知道1511年葡萄牙也占领了那里，控制了这一连接印度洋与太平洋的海上通道，成为其进行香料贸易的重要枢纽。