A Traveller’s Song
By 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?
It is one of the most famous Classical Chinese poems. The poem was written when Meng was working in Liyang at his 50, Jiangsu Province, as a county official. He welcomed his mother’s visit to Liyang. This poem expresses a mother’s sincere love for her children which is widely spread from generation to generation. Almost every Chinese knows this poem. The last two verses are now a common metaphor of motherly love.
By 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?
It is one of the most famous Classical Chinese poems. The poem was written when Meng was working in Liyang at his 50, Jiangsu Province, as a county official. He welcomed his mother’s visit to Liyang. This poem expresses a mother’s sincere love for her children which is widely spread from generation to generation. Almost every Chinese knows this poem. The last two verses are now a common metaphor of motherly love.
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