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Jiǔ Yuè Jiǔ Rì Yì Shān Dōng Xiōng DìThinking of My Brothers on the Double Ninth 九月九日忆山东兄弟

Wang Wei (王维, also known as Wang Mojie)｜High Tang｜seven-character quatrain

Wang Wei's homesick poem, written at seventeen.

Original Chinese text with pinyin

独在异乡为异客
dú zài yì xiāng wéi yì kè

每逢佳节倍思亲
měi féng jiā jié bèi sī qīn

遥知兄弟登高处
yáo zhī xiōng dì dēng gāo chù

遍插茱萸少一人
biàn chā zhū yú shǎo yī rén

Simplified characters; traditional title: 九月九日憶山東兄弟.

English translation

Alone, a lonely stranger in a foreign land,

I doubly pine for my kinsfolk on holiday.

I know my brothers would, with dogwood spray in hand,

Climb up the mountain and miss me so far away.

Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.

Line by line

独在异乡为异客 · dú zài yì xiāng wéi yì kè — Alone, a lonely stranger in a foreign land,

每逢佳节倍思亲 · měi féng jiā jié bèi sī qīn — I doubly pine for my kinsfolk on holiday.

遥知兄弟登高处 · yáo zhī xiōng dì dēng gāo chù — I know my brothers would, with dogwood spray in hand,

遍插茱萸少一人 · biàn chā zhū yú shǎo yī rén — Climb up the mountain and miss me so far away.

Meaning and imagery

The second line has become an everyday saying in Chinese for holiday homesickness. In the second couplet Wang Wei reverses viewpoint: instead of describing his own feelings, he imagines his brothers on the hill, counting heads and noticing one missing. Seeing himself as an absence makes the longing all the more poignant.

Background

Written when Wang Wei was seventeen and living in the capital region, away from his family in Shanxi (east of the mountains, hence "Shandong"). On the Double Ninth (9th day of the 9th month) people climbed hills and wore dogwood to ward off evil.

Key words

异乡 yì xiāng: a strange land
佳节 jiā jié: festival
茱萸 zhū yú: dogwood (Cornus officinalis)

About the poet: Wang Wei

Wang Wei was a poet, painter, musician and court official. A devout Buddhist, he wrote spare, luminous landscape verse; later critics said there is "a painting in his poems and a poem in his paintings." He is sometimes called the "Buddha of Poetry."

Lifetime: c. 699–761. Other famous works: Miscellaneous Poem (You Have Come from Home) (杂诗); Farewell (Dismounting to Drink) (送别); Autumn Evening in the Mountains (山居秋暝); Longing (相思); Deer Park (鹿柴); Bamboo Grove Retreat (竹里馆); Farewell to Yuan the Second on His Mission to Anxi (送元二使安西); Thinking of My Brothers on the Double Ninth (九月九日忆山东兄弟); Birdsong in the Ravine (鸟鸣涧); Joys of the Countryside (田园乐); Floating on the Han River (汉江临泛); In the Mountains (山中); Farewell in the Mountains (山中送别); Long Rain at Wangchuan (积雨辋川庄作); Magnolia Bank (辛夷坞); Seeing Off Shen Zifu (送沈子福之江东); Reply to Vice-Prefect Zhang (酬张少府); A Quiet Matter (书事); Song of Youth (少年行); My Retreat at Zhongnan (终南别业); Seeing Off Prefect Li of Zizhou (送梓州李使君).