POEM
回乡偶书Huí Xiāng Ǒu ShūHome-Coming
- Dynasty
- Tang
- Author
- 贺知章 Hè Zhīzhāng (He Zhizhang)
- Genre
- 七言绝句
- Lines
- 4
- Era
- c. 7th-8th century
THE POEM — LINE BY LINE
Tap a line for word-by-word gloss.
#1少小离家老大回Shào xiǎo lí jiā lǎo dà huíI left home young; I return old.word by word
#2乡音无改鬓毛衰Xiāng yīn wú gǎi bìn máo shuāiMy hometown accent is unchanged, though the hair at my temples has thinned.word by word
乡xiānghometown音yīnaccent; sound无wúnot; without改gǎichange鬓bìnhair at the temples毛máohair衰shuāithin; sparse#3儿童相见不相识Ér tóng xiāng jiàn bù xiāng shíThe children see me but do not know me;word by word
儿érchild (儿童: children)童tóngchild (儿童: children)相xiāngeach other (here: me)见jiànsee不bùnot相xiāngeach other识shíknow; recognize#4笑问客从何处来Xiào wèn kè cóng hé chù láismiling, they ask the stranger where he comes from.word by word
POEM IN PLAIN ENGLISH
A plain-English guide, not a literary translationI left home as a boy; now, an old man, I come back. My hometown accent is unchanged, though the hair at my temples has thinned. The children I meet do not know me — and smiling, they ask the stranger where he comes from. The poem compresses a whole lifetime into four lines: the poet is a guest in the place where he was born, and the children's innocent question is the gentlest, saddest proof of how long he has been away. This is a plain-English guide, not a literary translation.
BACKGROUND & IMAGERY
He Zhizhang (c. 659-744) left his hometown in Zhejiang as a young man and returned only in his eighties, after a long career at court; he died the year after. 回乡偶书 ('Improvisations on Coming Home') is a two-poem set, of which this is the first and far more famous piece. The third line is sometimes read as 家童相见不相识 ('the servant boy sees me but does not know me'); the text here follows the received version (通行本).
HISTORIC TRANSLATION
Bowed down with age I seek my native place,
Unchanged my speech, my hair is silvered now;
My very children do not know my face,
But smiling ask, "O stranger, whence art thou?"
Herbert Giles, Chinese Poetry in English Verse (1898)
Public domain (translator died 1935; first published 1898, before the 1929 US safety line).
TRUST & SOURCES
- Reviewed by
- AI-assisted editorial review
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-15
Sources
- 《唐诗三百首》通行本（中华书局点校本）
- 本站飞花令语料 feihualing.db（poem 396998） — 文本以通行本为准，库本仅行级参考（库本与通行本一致）
- Herbert Giles, Chinese Poetry in English Verse (1898), p. 46 — 公版译本，逐条登记于 license-ledger-poetry.json；标题作 'The Return'
- Original English paraphrase & gloss — 本站原创学习释义，非文学译本（plain-English guide, not a literary translation）
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