He Zhizhang

I left home young. I returned old;
Speaking as then, but with hair grown thin;
And my children, meeting me, do not know me.
They smile and say: "Stranger, where do you come from?"

He Zhizhang (659–744) was a Chinese poet born in present-day Xiaoshan, Zhejiang during the Tang Dynasty.

Quotes

• 碧玉妝成一樹高，
  萬條垂下綠絲縧。
  不知細葉誰裁出，
  二月春風似剪刀。
  • Ten thousand branches of tall trees begin to sprout,
    They droop like fringes of a robe made of green jade.
    But do you know by whom these young leaves are cut out?
    The early spring wind is as sharp as scissor blade.
  • "Willow Trees" (《咏柳》), in 150 Tang Poems, trans. Xu Yuan-zhong

• 少小離家老大回，鄉音無改鬢毛衰。
  兒童相見不相識，笑問客從何處來。
  • I left home young. I returned old;
    Speaking as then, but with hair grown thin;
    And my children, meeting me, do not know me.
    They smile and say: "Stranger, where do you come from?"
  • "Coming Home" (《回乡偶书》) in Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty, trans. Witter Bynner

External links

• Encyclopedic article on He Zhizhang on Wikipedia