Huí Xiāng Ǒu ShūComing Home 回乡偶书
He Zhizhang returns home after fifty years — as a stranger.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
少小离家老大回
shào xiǎo lí jiā lǎo dà huí
乡音无改鬓毛衰
xiāng yīn wú gǎi bìn máo cuī
儿童相见不相识
ér tóng xiāng jiàn bù xiāng shí
笑问客从何处来
xiào wèn kè cóng hé chù lái
Simplified characters; traditional title: 回鄉偶書.
English translation
I left home young. I return old,
Speaking as then, but with hair grown thin;
And my children, meeting me, do not know me.
They smile and say: "Stranger, where do you come from?"
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
Meaning and imagery
The first couplet is a tidy contrast: young/old, accent unchanged/hair changed. The second is a tiny, gently comic scene. The children's innocent question turns the old man into a guest in his own home. The poet never states his emotion — the smile and the question contain both amusement and a pang of loss.
Background
Written in 744 when He Zhizhang, in his eighties, retired from court and returned to his native Yuezhou (Shaoxing) after about fifty years away.
Key words
- 乡音 xiāng yīn
- local accent
- 鬓毛 bìn máo
- hair at the temples
- 衰 cuī
- thinning (read cuī here)
About the poet: He Zhizhang
He Zhizhang was a senior court scholar known for his wit and love of wine; he is said to have given Li Bai the nickname "a banished immortal." He retired home to Zhejiang in his eighties.
Lifetime: 659–744. Other famous works: Ode to the Willow (咏柳); Coming Home (回乡偶书).