Poem
There is an often-quoted poem about the holiday:
九月九日憶山東兄弟
獨在異鄉為異客,
每逢佳節倍思親.
遙知兄弟登高處,
遍插茱萸少一人.
- "Double Ninth, Missing My Shandong Brothers" — Wang Wei (王維), Tang Dynasty
English:
- On the ninth day of the ninth month, I remember my brothers from Shan Dong.
- As a lonely stranger in a foreign land,
- At every holiday my homesickness increases.
- Far away, I know my brothers have reached the peak;
- They are planting flowers, but one is not present.
Read more about this topic: Double Ninth Festival
Famous quotes containing the word poem:
“A poem is like a person. Though it has a family tree, it is important not because of its ancestors but because of its individuality. The poem, like any human being, is something more than its most complete analysis. Like any human being, it gives a sense of unified individuality which no summary of its qualities can reproduce; and at the same time a sense of variety which is beyond satisfactory final analysis.”
—Donald Stauffer (b. 1930)
“The award of a pure gold medal for poetry would flatter the recipient unduly: no poem ever attains such carat purity.”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)
“There were ghosts that returned to earth to hear his phrases,
As he sat there reading, aloud, the great blue tabulae.
They were those from the wilderness of stars that had expected more.
There were those that returned to hear him read from the poem of life,
Of the pans above the stove, the pots on the table, the tulips among them.
They were those that would have wept to step barefoot into reality....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)