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.
Original Poem:
「九月九日忆山东兄弟」
王维
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。
Interpretation:
This poem was written in 717 A.D. It was written because the poet missed his relatives in his hometown on the Chongyang Festival.
In the first two lines, a person is alone in another country as a guest, and he misses his distant relatives twice as much during the festival.
At that time in Chinese society, the transportation was closed, people lived a self-sufficient life, and there was less communication between regions, so people in different places had great differences in customs, living habits, language, etc. Therefore, the poet left his hometown, where he had lived for many years, and went to live in a different place, naturally, he felt unfamiliar and lonely. The poet narrates plainly that he is in a foreign land, but it contains the poet's simple thoughts and feelings.
The last two lines: I think that when my brothers climbed up to see the distance today, my head was full of dogwoods and I was the only one missing.
Instead of saying that he misses his relatives at home, he imagines that his relatives at home miss him. He depicted an imaginary picture: far east of Mount Hua brothers in the Chongyang Festival in the dogwood climbing high, they will remember that around the missing me ah. These two lines are very skillfully constructed, still writing about homesickness, but not saying that he misses himself, but saying that his family misses him, with a twist and turn of expression and meaning.
Although this poem seems to be simple and easy, it contains the strong feelings of homesickness. Over the centuries, many visitors have been deeply infected by this poem, which derives its artistic power from the skillful combination of simplicity, naturalness and high degree of sophistication.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Wang Wei (王维), 701-761 A.D., was a native of Yuncheng, Shanxi Province. Wang Wei was a poet of landscape and idylls. His poems of landscape and idylls, with far-reaching images and mysterious meanings, were widely loved by readers in later generations, but Wang Wei never really became a man of landscape and idylls.
