A Traveller's Song
- Poetry of Meng Jiao
The thread in the hands of a fond-hearted mother
Makes clothes for the body of her wayward boy;
Carefully she sews and thoroughly she mends,
Dreading the delays that will keep him late from home.
But how much love has the inch-long grass
For three spring months of the light of the sun?
Folk-song-styled-verse
Composed during the mid-to-late Tang Dynasty, this poem reflects the life of its author Meng Jiao, who endured poverty and career frustrations, wandering through his forties amidst life's hardships. His mother remained his deepest emotional anchor throughout. Being constantly away from home, Meng keenly understood his mother's silent toil and ceaseless concern, which inspired "A Traveler's Song" to express long-accumulated gratitude and remorse. Without mournful lament or impassioned rhetoric, the poem captures an ordinary moment with such authentic emotion that it has become one of Chinese classical poetry's most enduring tributes to maternal love, cherished for over a millennium.
慈母手中线，游子身上衣。
临行密密缝，意恐迟迟归。
谁言寸草心，报得三春晖。
- Why Chinese poems is so special?
- The most distinctive features of Chinese poetry are: concision- many poems are only four lines, and few are much longer than eight; ambiguity- number, tense and parts of speech are often undetermined, creating particularly rich interpretative possibilities; and structure- most poems follow quite strict formal patterns which have beauty in themselves as well as highlighting meaningful contrasts.
- How to read a Chinese poem?
- Like an English poem, but more so. Everything is there for a reason, so try to find that reason. Think about all the possible connotations, and be aware of the different possibilities of number and tense. Look for contrasts: within lines, between the lines of each couplet and between successive couplets. Above all, don't worry about what the poet meant- find your meaning.
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