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Incidental Letter on Returning Home, He Zhizhang (Tang Shi #261)
When young, I left my home—an elder I return.
My accent hasn’t changed—my temple hair is sparse.
The children come to see, but since I am unknown,
They laugh and ask, “Hey, stranger, where do you come from?”
回乡偶书
少小离家老大回，
乡音无改鬓毛衰；
儿童相见不相识，
笑问客从何处来。
He Zhizhang left his hometown as a student preparing for the imperial exams and didn’t return till he was 80. The first three lines, there’s a strong caesura after the fourth character, but this shifts to before it in the last line. It could be that the local’s accents haven’t changed.
—L.
My accent hasn’t changed—my temple hair is sparse.
The children come to see, but since I am unknown,
They laugh and ask, “Hey, stranger, where do you come from?”
回乡偶书
少小离家老大回，
乡音无改鬓毛衰；
儿童相见不相识，
笑问客从何处来。
He Zhizhang left his hometown as a student preparing for the imperial exams and didn’t return till he was 80. The first three lines, there’s a strong caesura after the fourth character, but this shifts to before it in the last line. It could be that the local’s accents haven’t changed.
—L.