"Returning to Hometown Odd Book" Part 2
I have been away from my hometown for many years, and recently I have been busy with people.
（lí bié jiā xiāng suì yuè duō, jìn lái rén shì bàn xiāo mó.）
Only the mirror lake in front of the door, the spring breeze does not change the old waves.
（wéi yǒu mén qián jìng hú shuǐ, chūn fēng bù gǎi jiù shí bō.）
Vernacular translation
It has been a long time since I left my hometown. After a long time, I came home and realized that the personnel changes in my hometown were really great.
Only the clear water of Jinghu Lake in front of the door, rippled by the spring breeze, is exactly the same as it was more than fifty years ago.
Word Notes
Will away: gradually disappear, eliminate.
Jinghu: The name of the lake, located at the northern foot of Kuaiji Mountain in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province today, with a radius of more than 300 miles. He Zhizhang's hometown is on the edge of Jinghu Lake.
Extended information:
He Zhizhang resigned from the imperial post in the third year of Emperor Xuanzong's Tianbao reign (744), retired and returned to his hometown of Yongxing, Yuezhou (now Xiaoshan, Hangzhou, Zhejiang) when he was eight years old. Sixteen years old. It has been more than fifty years since he left his hometown. Life is easy to grow old and the world is full of vicissitudes. He felt infinite emotions in his heart, so he wrote two poems "Odd Letters on Returning to Hometown".
The second part of "Returning to Hometown" captures the contrast between the changes and the unchanged in hometown, revealing the author's emotion and helplessness about the changes in life, the vicissitudes of time, and the changes in things and people. After the poet arrived home, he learned about the various changes in human affairs in his hometown through conversations with relatives and friends. While lamenting the old age due to long-term guests, he could not help but lament the impermanence of human affairs. The language of this poem is simple and unpretentious, the emotions are natural and lifelike, and it is full of the interest of life.
Reference materials: Baidu Encyclopedia-Two Poems on Returning to Hometown