Meng Jiao
The midline of the loving mother's hand,
The tramp put on his clothes.
Close the seam before leaving,
I'm afraid I will be late.
Who is careless,
Make three spring scenery.
[Notes]
1. Wanderer: Wanderer, guest outside. Yin, the name of a poem.
2. inch of grass: it symbolizes children here.
3. Heart: The trunk of vegetation is called the heart. The word "heart" is a pun here.
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[Brief analysis]
This is a kind and sincere ode to maternal love. Under the heading, the author notes "Mu Ying Li Shangyin". Meng Jiao was down and out all his life, and he didn't get the humble position of Liyang County Commandant until he was fifty years old. This poem was written when he lived in Liyang.
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. Three or four sentences, "She sewed carefully and mended thoroughly, fearing that the delay would make him go home late", deepened this kind of flesh-and-blood affection by describing the actions and psychology of loving mother making clothes for wanderers. 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: a daughter is like grass, and a mother's love is like spring sunshine. How can a daughter 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.