University of Virginia Library

樂府 孟郊 遊子吟

慈母手中線, 遊子身上衣;
臨行密密縫, 意恐遲遲歸。
誰言寸草心, 報得三春輝?

Folk-song-styled-verse
Meng Jiao A TRAVELLER'S SONG

The thread in the hands of a fond-hearted mother
Makes clothes for the body of her wayward boy;
Carefully she sews and thoroughly she mends,
Dreading the delays that will keep him late from home.
But how much love has the inch-long grass
For three spring months of the light of the sun?