Passing by my old friend’s village

My old friend brought chicken and millet and invited me to Tian’s house.

Green trees border the village, and Qingshanguo slopes outside.

Open a dining room and chat over wine.

On the Double Ninth Festival, I will come to see chrysanthemums.

Notes

⑴Pao: visit. Old Friend's Village: The farm of an old friend. Village, farm.

⑵ Tools: preparation, purchase. Chicken millet: refers to the sumptuous meal (literally chicken and yellow rice) served by farmers for entertaining guests. Millet (shǔ): yellow rice, considered to be the finest grain in ancient times.

⑶Invite: Invite. To: Arrive.

⑷合: Surround.

⑸Guo: The ancient city wall had two layers: the inner and outer walls, the inner city and the outer Guo. This refers to the outer wall of the village. skew (xiá): tilt. Because the ancient poem needs to rhyme with the previous sentence, it should be read xiá.

⑹Open: open, turn on. Xuan: window. Face: facing. Field: field, threshing floor, rice field; garden, vegetable garden.

⑺ Hold the wine: Hold the wine utensil, referring to drinking. To pick up: to pick up. Pick up. Talking about Sangma: chatting about farming. Mulberry: Mulberry and hemp. This generally refers to crops.

⑻ Double Ninth Festival: refers to the ninth day of September in the lunar calendar. The ancients had the custom of climbing high and drinking chrysanthemum wine on this day.

⑼Huán: return, come. Just chrysanthemum: refers to drinking chrysanthemum wine, which also means appreciating chrysanthemums. Just, to get close, to do something.

Translation

My old friend prepared yellow rice and roast chicken,

invited me to be a guest in his simple Tianjia.

Outside the village is a circle of green trees,

On the outskirts are green and sloping hills.

Open the window and face the fields.

Have a drink and chat about cultivating mulberry and hemp.

Wait until the Double Ninth Festival in September,

Let’s taste chrysanthemum wine again!

Introduction to the work

"The Pass" "Old Friend's Village" is a five-rhyme poem composed by Meng Haoran, a poet of the Tang Dynasty. It tells the story of the poet being invited to the home of an old friend in the countryside. In the simple and natural pastoral scenery, the host and guest toasted to drink and chatted about daily life, which was full of fun and expressed the sincere friendship between the poet and his friends. At first glance, this poem seems as plain as water, but when you taste it carefully, it looks like a Chinese painting of pastoral scenery. It perfectly combines scenery, things, and emotions, and has a strong artistic appeal.

About the author

Meng Haoran (689～740), a poet of the Tang Dynasty. His real name is Hao, and his courtesy name is Haoran. He was born in Xiangyang, Xiangzhou, and was known as Meng Xiangyang in the world. Because he had never been an official, he was also called a Mengshan man. In his early years, he had ambitions to serve the world. After being embattled and disappointed in his official career, he was still able to respect himself and did not flatter the world, so he lived his whole life as a hermit. He once lived in seclusion in Lumen Mountain and gave birth to six sons. Shi and Wang Wei are both called "Wang Meng". His poems are light and good at describing scenery. They mostly reflect the landscape, pastoral, seclusion, travel and other contents. Most of them are five-character short stories, and he has unique attainments in art. There are three volumes of "Collected Works of Meng Haoran" and two volumes of compiled poems.

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