Hui xiang ou shu 回乡偶书 by He Zhi Zhang 贺知章
Hui xiang ou shu 回乡偶书 by He Zhi Zhang 贺知章
小离家老大回
乡音未改鬓毛衰
儿童相见不相识
笑问客从何处来
少小离家老大回
shào xiǎo lí jiā lǎo dà huí
乡音未改鬓毛衰
xiāng yīn wèi gǎi bìn máo cuī shuāi
儿童相见不相识
ér tóng xiāng jiàn bù xiāng shí
笑问客从何处来
xiào wèn kè cóng hé chù lái
shào xiǎo lí jiā lǎo dà huí
少小离家老大回
young away from home old age return
xiāng yīn wèi gǎi bìn máo cuī shuāi
乡音未改鬓毛衰
local accent has not changed temple hair grey (weak)
ér tóng xiāng jiàn bù xiāng shí
儿童相见不相识
child(ren) meet not know
xiào wèn kè cóng hé chù lái
笑问客从何处来
laugh ask visitor from where come
When Zhi Zhang was 37 years old he qualified for the ‘jin shi’. At that time you would have to do the imperial exam one step one step at a time if you wanted to work for the emperor. The ‘jin shi’ qualified Zhi Zhang to work at the provincial level and he left his hometown. He did not return until he was 80 years old. This poem is about the mixed feelings he had when he was returning home in his old age. He sighed a little with the sadness that he had lived outside for so long a time. Yet he is also feeling happy that is he finally returning back home.
少小离家老大回 - when I was young I left home, now I am returning in my old age
乡音未改鬓毛衰 - my local accent may not have changed but the hair on my temples has become grey
儿童相见不相识 - the children do not know who I am when they meet me.
笑问客从何处来 - they smile and ask me where do you come from？
Young, I left home, now returning.
Grey temples, the same voice.
Children, unaware, stranger, meeting,
Smiling, they ask, “From where do you come?”
Hui xiang 回乡 is the title of the poem and talks about returning to his home town.
ou shu 偶书 is the form of the poem. It is a poem written spontaneously, on the spur of the moment. It is as though He Zhi Zhang sat down on a bench on his return and wrote the poem in the dust at his feet. It was not planned or formed; it came directly out of his recent experience.
Meng Haoran 孟浩然 (689 or 691 – 740) was a Chinese poet during the Tang Dynasty. Unsuccessful in his official career, he mainly lived in and wrote about his birthplace.
The eldest of the major High Tang poets, he was born in Xiangyang, Hubei, and was strongly attached to the area. He lived there almost all his life, and its landscape, history and legends are the subjects of many of his poems. Particularly prominent are Nanshan (or South Mountain, his family seat) and Lumen Shan, where he briefly lived in retreat.
He had an unsuccessful civil service career, passing the Jinshi exam late, at the age of 39. He received his first and last position three years before his death, but resigned after less than a year.
He is often bracketed with Wang Wei, due to the friendship they shared and their prominence as landscape poets. In fact, Haoran composed several poems about Wei and their separation. While Wei focused on the natural world, in particular the solitude and reprieve it granted from human life along with the scale of the natural world, Meng Haoran focuses more on foreground details and human life.
His works are generally considered less consistently successful than Wang's.
Typical country scene
Xiaosui reciting Hui xiang ou shu by He Zhi Zhang
