The meaning of He Zhizhang's ancient poem "Returning to Hometown" is as follows:
"Returning to Hometown": One: I left my hometown when I was young and came back in my old age. Although my local accent has not changed, the hair on my temples has become thinner. When the children saw me, no one recognized me. They smiled and asked: Where did this guest come from?
Returning to Hometown Odd Book · Part 2: I have been away from my hometown for a long time. After I returned home, I realized that the changes in personnel in my hometown were really great. Only the clear water of Jinghu Lake in front of the door, rippled by the spring breeze, is still exactly the same as it was more than fifty years ago.
Original text of the two poems in the Occasional Book about Returning to Hometown:
The Occasional Book about Returning to Hometown·Part 1
The young man left home and his elder brother returned, but his local pronunciation has not changed and his hair on his temples has faded.
Children don’t recognize each other when they see each other, and they laugh and ask where the guest is from.
Returning to Hometown Occasion · Part 2
I have been away from my hometown for many years, and recently I have been busy with people.
Only the mirror lake water in front of the door⑺, the spring breeze does not change the old waves.
The Two Poems on Returning to Hometown are a collection of poems by He Zhizhang, a poet of the Tang Dynasty. They were composed when the poet resigned from office and returned to his hometown in his later years. The first poem not only expresses the poet's sadness of being in a foreign country for a long time, but also expresses the intimacy of returning to his hometown after a long absence; the second poem captures the contrast between the changes and the unchanged in his hometown, revealing the poet's feelings about the changes in life and the passage of time. The vicissitudes of life, the emotion and helplessness of things changing and people changing. The language of these two poems is simple and unpretentious, the emotions are natural and lifelike, and they are full of life interest.
He Zhizhang resigned from his official position in the court during the third year of Emperor Xuanzong's Tianbao reign in the Tang Dynasty (744), retired and returned to his hometown of Yongxing, Yuezhou (now Xiaoshan, Hangzhou, Zhejiang) at the age of eighty-six. 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 this set of poems.
Appreciation of two poems in the Ouji Book about Returning Home:
The first poem is a sentimental poem about long-term visitors to a foreign land and remembering the hometown. . In the first and second sentences, the poet is placed in the familiar yet unfamiliar environment of his hometown, walking all the way, and his mood is quite uneasy: when he left home, he was in his prime, but when he returns today, his hair on his temples is sparse, and he can't help but sigh.
As far as the whole poem is concerned, one or two sentences are still average, but the three or four sentences are like twists and turns and have a different realm. The beauty of the last two sentences is that the back side is powdered, leaving no trace: although it is about sadness, it is expressed through joyful scenes; although it is about oneself, it is translated from the child's side. The scene of children's questioning is full of the interest of life. Readers are not only infected by the poet's sadness for being a long-term visitor, but also cannot but be moved by this interesting life scene.
The second song can be regarded as a continuation of the first song. After the poet arrived home, he learned about the various changes in human affairs in his hometown through conversations with relatives and friends. While sighing at the pain of being a long time guest, he also couldn't help but sigh at the impermanence of human affairs. "It has been many years since I left my hometown", which is equivalent to the previous song's "Young boy leaves home and the old man returns". The poet takes the trouble to repeat the same meaning simply because all the emotions are caused by being away from home for decades.
Words indicating time such as "many years", "recently" and "old times" are used throughout the poem, making the whole poem enveloped in an atmosphere of deep contemplation and overwhelming emotion. Compared with the first prime minister, if the poet felt a little relieved to be among his relatives when he first entered the house and saw the children, then after he listened to the introduction of relatives and friends, he felt independent by the sparkling mirror lake. By this time, it had undoubtedly become increasingly sentimental.