<Header>
<Author: 孟郊>
<Title: 遊子吟>
<Format: 五言古詩>
<Year: 2009>
<BookName: Three Hundred TANG POEMS>
<Translator: Harris, Peter>
<TranslatedTitle: The absent traveller – a lament>
<BookPage: 198>
<UsedPage: 1>
<Feature: 0>
<End Header>
<Poem>
慈母手中線，
遊子身上衣。
臨行密密縫，
意恐遲遲歸。
誰言寸草心，
報得三春暉。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
The threads in the hands of his loving mother
Are the clothes on the back of the absent traveller.
She sowed them finely, so finely before he set out,
Fearing he would be slow, so slow to come home again.
Who says that our heart, like a tiny blade of grass,
Can requite the light the sun shines through the spring?
<End Translation>