On the Mountain Holiday Thinking of My Brothers in Shandong
- Poetry of Wang Wei
All alone in a foreign land,
I am twice as homesick on this day
When brothers carry dogwood up the mountain,
Each of them a branch-and my branch missing.
Seven-character-quatrain
Composed in 717 AD when Wang Wei was twenty-seven and serving as a court secretary in Chang'an, this poem expresses his longing for family during the Double Ninth Festival. Far from his hometown in Shandong, the young poet observed this traditional occasion—marked by mountain climbing, wearing dogwood sprigs, and drinking chrysanthemum wine—with poignant solitude. Though devoid of ornate language, the poem's restrained depth captures a wanderer's holiday nostalgia, particularly through the imagined scene of brothers' reunion, making it an enduring masterpiece of homesickness in Chinese literature.
独在异乡为异客，每逢佳节倍思亲。
遥知兄弟登高处，遍插茱萸少一人。
- 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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