孟郊: 游子吟/ meng jiao: a traveller's song

 

游子吟

孟郊

慈母手中线， 游子身上衣。

临行密密缝， 意恐迟迟归。

谁言寸草心， 报得三春辉。

　

a traveller's song

meng jiao

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?