All alone in a strange land,
How I long for my folks on this festive day!
I imagine my brothers climb up a hill, dogwood on heads,
And all except me merrily go their way.
Thinking of My Brothers on
the Double Ninth Festival
PHOTO © SHUTTERSTOCKWANG WEI (699–759) was a famous Chinese poet
from the Tang Dynasty. Thinking of My Brothers on
the Double Ninth Festival is one of his best-known
works, written when he was just 17 years old.
The poem speaks of a lonely traveller’s
homesickness, amplified tenfold on the Double
Ninth Festival, when he envisions his family
in Shanxi engaging in the traditional ascent
up Mount Hua without him. On this holiday,
observed on the ninth day of the ninth month
in the Chinese calendar, people climb to high
places while wearing a sprig of dogwood (Cornus
officinalis) in their hair to ward off evil.By Wang Wei (translated by Feng Huazhan)
timeless