Learn Chinese poem – 游子吟 You2 zi5 yin2 Traveler’s song / Wanderer’s song 孟郊 Meng4 jiao1: song, pinyin, English translation, poem analysis, and Meng Jiao background information

游子吟
You2 zi5 yin2
Traveler’s song / Wanderer’s song

孟郊
Meng4 jiao1

慈母手中线，
ci2 mu3 shou3 zhong1 xian4
The thread in the hand of the loving mother

游子身上衣。
you2 zi5 shen1 shang4 yi1
The clothes on the body of the traveler

临行密密缝，
lin2 xing2 mi4 mi4 feng2
Nearing departure, closely and closely stitches

意恐迟迟归。
yi4 kong3 chi2 chi2 gui1
The mind fears that the child might return late

谁言寸草心，
shei2 yan2 cun4 cao3 xin1
Who says the heart of the inch grass

报得三春晖。
bao4 de2 san1 chun1 hui1
Could be able to repay the sunlight of full spring?

Translated by Shu

Notes
you2: travel.
zi5: noun suffix
you2 zi5: traveler
yin2: a type of poem; song poem
ci2 mu3: kind mother
shou3 zhong1 xian4: the thread in the hand
lin2 xing1: nearing departure; soon to depart
mi4 mi4: closely
feng2: to sew, to stitch. In the poem, it means the mom labored to make a tightly sewn garment that could keep her son warm during the wandering days out of hometown.
yi4 kong3: the mind worries
chi2 chi2 gui1: late return
shei2 yan2: who says
cun4 cao3: inch grass; the tender grass, here used as a metaphor to refer to the child
san1 chun1: the three months of spring; the full spring season
hui: sunlight

About this The traveler’s song poem:
In Chinese poems, the ‘traveler’s Song’ is a well-known and popular poem that vividly expresses the child’s obligation to return parental love, a conventional virtue in Chinese morality. The poem is relatively simple and easy to understand. In this poem, Meng Jiao expressed his gratitude for his mother. He longed to repay his mother’s kindness. However, he recognized the impossibility of doing so, for how can the inch tender grass be able to repay the bright sunlight of full three months of spring?

About Meng Jiao:
Meng Jiao (Meng Chiao) 孟郊 (751-814) belonged to a circle surrounding the major essayist, poet, and critic Han Yu (Han Yü) 韩愈(768-824). After a promising young beginning as an intellectual young scholar, Meng Jiao failed to pass the exam until he was about 50 years old. Then, unluckily, he got fired from the only position he was offered. Although he was a famous poet, his personal life was bitter and sad. Thus, Meng Jiao’s poetry is noted for its cold and somewhat jarring imagery and contrived expression. As a sad man, Meng’s sad poetry style concentrated on the coldness: the cold mountains, cold weather, or people suffering from the cold.