No. 84 · Tang poem · five-character quatrain第 84 首 · 唐诗 · 五言绝句
wáng王wéi维Wang Wei · Tang唐
Miscellaneous Poem, No. 2
jūn君zì自gù故xiāng乡lái来
yīng应zhī知gù故xiāng乡shì事
lái来rì日qǐ绮chuāng窗qián前
hán寒méi梅zhuó着huā花wèi未
Underlined words have notes: tap one. The Pinyin button below shows or hides all pinyin. 一 and 不 are marked with the tone you actually say.字下有虚线的，点开有注释。下方的“拼音”按钮可以显示或隐藏全部拼音。“一”“不”标的是实际读出来的变调。
Wang Wei wrote three Miscellaneous Poems, and this is the second. We do not know when. Miscellaneous Poem was a common title for poems written on the spur of the moment, without a particular subject for a title. The speaker has been away from home a long time. He meets someone who has just come from his hometown and eagerly asks for news. What he asks about is not something big, but a plum tree by his window.
王维写了三首《杂诗》，这是第二首，写作时间不清楚。“杂诗”是古代诗人常用的题目，意思是随手写下、不好起具体题目的诗。诗里的人离开家乡很久了，遇到一位从家乡来的人，就急着打听家乡的事。他问的不是大事，而是窗前的一棵梅树。
Wang Wei (701–761; some say 699–761) was a Tang poet and painter, called the Buddha of Poetry. In his teens he left home for Chang'an and other places to seek an official career, and spent most of his life away. His poems about missing home are very moving. Thinking of My Brothers on the Double Ninth Festival is another famous one.
王维（701—761，一说699—761），唐代诗人、画家，人称“诗佛”。他十几岁就离开家乡，到长安等地求取功名，一生大部分时间都在外地。他写思念家乡的诗很动人，《九月九日忆山东兄弟》也是他的名作。
Imagine you have been away from home for a long time and suddenly meet someone just back from there. What would you ask? Maybe how your family is, or how things are at home. But the person in this poem asks only one small thing: had the plum tree by my window bloomed yet? The smaller the question, the more we see that he remembers every plant and tree of home clearly. Maybe he planted that tree with his family. Maybe it reminds him of someone at home. One little plum tree holds all his longing.
想想看，你离家很久，突然遇到一个刚从老家来的人，会问什么？可能会问家里人好不好、家里怎么样了。这首诗里的人却只问了一件小事：我家窗前那棵梅花开了没有？问得越小，越能看出他对家乡的一草一木都记得清清楚楚。那棵梅树，也许是他和家人一起种的，也许会让他想起家里的某个人。一棵小小的梅树，装着他满满的思念。