Original: Wandering Sons (Tang Mengjiao)
The mother used the needle and thread in her hand to make clothes for her long-distance son.
Before leaving, I had a stitch for fear that my son would come back late and his clothes would be damaged.
Who can say that a filial child like the weak can repay his mother's love like the sunshine in spring?
Vernacular translation
A loving mother makes clothes for her long-distance son with a needle and thread in her hand.
Before leaving, he sewed a needle tightly for fear that his son would come back late and his clothes would be damaged.
Who can say that a child's filial piety as weak as grass can repay the kindness of such a loving mother as Chunhui Puze?
Meng Jiao wrote "Welcome your mother to work in Li" on the theme of Ode to a Wanderer. Meng Jiao was homeless in his early years and poor all his life. It was not until he was 50 years old that he got a humble position as a county magistrate in Liyang, ending his long-term wandering life and living with his mother. The poet was frustrated in his career and suffered from the indifference of the world. At this time, he felt the value of his family more and more, so he wrote this heartfelt and touching poem praising his mother.
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The first two sentences, "thread in the hands of a loving mother makes clothes for her wayward boy's body", closely link "loving mother" and "wandering son" with two very common things, and write the flesh-and-blood feelings of mother and child. In three or four sentences, "She mended carefully and thoroughly, fearing that the delay would make him go home late", through the loving mother to the homeless.
A traveler's song
The action of making clothes and psychological depiction deepen this kind of flesh-and-blood love. The mother sewed thousands of stitches for fear that her son would "delay" and could not come back. Great maternal love is naturally revealed through the details of daily life. The first four sentences are very simple, without any modification, but the image of loving mother is really touching.
The last two sentences, "Only an inch of grass has a little affection, and three wisps of spring scenery are appreciated", are the author's heartfelt eulogies of love for his mother. These two sentences adopt the traditional contrast method: children are like grass, and maternal love is like spring sunshine. How can a child repay a mother's love in case? The contrast and metaphor of images entrust the son's heartfelt love for his loving mother.
This poem artistically reproduces the ordinary and great beauty of human nature that people feel, so it has won strong praise from countless readers for thousands of years. Until the Qing Dynasty, two poets in Liyang sang such a poem: "My father's books are full of laundry, and the bus is full of me" (Shi Qisheng's "Writing about my bosom"), "How many tears I always shed, dyed my hands and sewed clothes" (Peng Gui's "Visiting my mother for the first time"), which shows that this poem left a deep impression on future generations. [3]?
Famous comments
Tan's "Selected Comments on Tang Poetry in the Ming Dynasty" commented on this poem: "Writing about the love between mother and child is extremely true, extremely hidden, extremely painful, extremely tired, and every word whimpers."