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Alone, a stranger staying in this strangers’ land,
Come festival time I all the more recall my family.
Though far, I know my brothers all ascend that height,
All put on now their flowers—lacking just one person.
九月九日忆山东兄弟
独在异乡为异客，
每逢佳节倍思亲。
遥知兄弟登高处，
遍插茱萸少一人。
Written when he was traveling at 17, in a town on the western foothills of Mt. Hua in Shaanxi, while his brothers were in Chang’an, well to its east. The festival on the 9th day of the 9th (lunar) month is related to longevity; climbing a local peak and wearing certain propitious flowers were common customs for its observance. The flower named might be either a type of boneset (an aromatic herb believed to ward off evil sprits) or dogwood—dictionaries and commentaries seem confused on this point.
Both of the first two lines have become proverbial, the first as an idiom equivalent to “a stranger in a strange land.”
Come festival time I all the more recall my family.
Though far, I know my brothers all ascend that height,
All put on now their flowers—lacking just one person.
九月九日忆山东兄弟
独在异乡为异客，
每逢佳节倍思亲。
遥知兄弟登高处，
遍插茱萸少一人。
Written when he was traveling at 17, in a town on the western foothills of Mt. Hua in Shaanxi, while his brothers were in Chang’an, well to its east. The festival on the 9th day of the 9th (lunar) month is related to longevity; climbing a local peak and wearing certain propitious flowers were common customs for its observance. The flower named might be either a type of boneset (an aromatic herb believed to ward off evil sprits) or dogwood—dictionaries and commentaries seem confused on this point.
Both of the first two lines have become proverbial, the first as an idiom equivalent to “a stranger in a strange land.”