Zhang Ji 張籍
early 9th century · Tang China
In the city of Luoyang I see the autumn wind. I want to write a letter home, and my thoughts come ten thousand deep. Suddenly afraid that in my hurry I have not said it all, as the traveller is about to leave I break the seal again.
洛陽城裏見秋風，欲作歸書意萬重。
忽恐匆匆說不盡，行人臨發又開封。"Autumn Thoughts," in the Complete Tang Poems
In the same thread
Wang Wei 王維
717 · Tang China · At seventeen, the Double Ninth festival spent in Chang'an
Alone in a strange place, a stranger, at every festival I miss my family twice as much. Far away, I know my brothers are climbing the heights, all wearing sprigs of dogwood, and one is missing.
獨在異鄉爲異客，每逢佳節倍思親。
遙知兄弟登高處，遍插茱萸少一人。"On the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month, Thinking of My Brothers East of the Mountains," in the Complete Tang Poems
Al-Mutanabbi المتنبي
962 · Iraq and Syria in Abbasid times · Slipping out of Egypt on the eve of the feast, his hopes there unfulfilled
Feast day, in what state have you come back, feast day? As things were before, or with something new in you? As for those I love, the desert lies between us. If only there were desert beyond desert between me and you.
عيد بأية حال عدت يا عيد
بما مضى أم لأمر فيك تجديد
أما الاحبة فالبيداء دونهم
فليت دونك بيدا دونها بيدDivan of al-Mutanabbi
Ishikawa Takuboku 石川啄木
1910 · Meiji Japan
I miss the accent of home. I go into the crowd at the station just to hear it.
ふるさとの訛なつかし
停車場の人ごみの中に
そを聴きにゆくTanka collection A Handful of Sand (Ichiaku no suna)
Rudaki رودکی
earlier 10th century · Samanid Central Asia · A poem urging a king who had stayed long abroad to go home to Bukhara. The king is said to have mounted his horse without stopping to put on his boots
The scent of the Muliyan stream keeps coming to me. The memory of a kind friend keeps coming to me. The sands of the Oxus and its rough road feel like silk beneath my feet.
بوی جوی مولیان آید همی
یاد یار مهربان آید همی
ریگ آموی و درشتی راه او
زیر پایم پرنیان آید همیA poem of Rudaki
Nameless people 詩經 無名氏
c. 9th–8th century BC · Zhou China · The song of a soldier coming home from war
Long ago, when I set out, the willows were soft and swaying. Now that I come back, the snow falls thick and fast.
昔我往矣，楊柳依依。
今我來思，雨雪霏霏。"Gathering Ferns" (Cai wei), Lesser Court Hymns, in the Book of Songs
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us