Quotes about home
19 real sentences about home, left by people who came before us, from c. 9th–8th century BC to 1930, oldest first. Each one has its source and the original text.
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
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
Wang Wei 王維
earlier 8th century · Tang China
You have come from my home village, so you must know how things are there. The day you left, by the silk-curtained window, had the winter plum put out its flowers?
君自故鄉來，應知故鄉事。
來日綺窗前，寒梅着花未。The second of three "Miscellaneous Poems"
He Zhizhang 賀知章
744 · Tang China · Home again past eighty, after fifty years
I left home young and come back old. My country accent is unchanged, but the hair at my temples is thin. The children see me and do not know me. They smile and ask: "Where are you from, visitor?"
少小離家老大回，鄉音難改鬢毛衰。
兒童相見不相識，笑問客從何處來。"Coming Home: Lines Written by Chance," the first poem, in the Complete Tang Poems
Cen Shen 岑參
749 · Tang China · On his way to a post on the western frontier
I look east towards home and the road goes on and on. Both my sleeves are soaked and the tears will not dry. We meet on horseback, with no paper or brush. I ask you only to take word that I am well.
故園東望路漫漫，雙袖龍鍾淚不乾。
馬上相逢無紙筆，憑君傳語報平安。"Meeting an Envoy on His Way to the Capital," in the Complete Tang Poems
Du Fu 杜甫
759 · Tang China · An autumn of war, his brothers scattered, on the night the season turns to White Dew
From tonight the dew turns white; the moon is brightest over my old home. I have brothers, and all are scattered; there is no home left to ask whether they live or die.
露從今夜白，月是故鄉明。
有弟皆分散，無家問死生。"Thinking of My Brothers on a Moonlit Night," in the Complete Tang Poems
Li Yi 李益
late 8th century · Tang China
Before Huile Peak the sand is like snow. Below the Surrender Wall the moonlight is like frost. Somewhere, who knows where, a reed pipe is playing, and all night long the soldiers on campaign look towards home.
回樂峰前沙似雪，受降城下月如霜。
不知何處吹蘆管，一夜征人盡望鄉。"Climbing the Wall of Shouxiang at Night and Hearing a Flute"
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
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
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
Rumi مولانا جلال‌الدین
c. 1260 · Konya, Anatolia
Anyone who is left far from his own root keeps seeking the days when he was joined to it.
هر کسی کو دور ماند از اصل خویش
باز جوید روزگار وصل خویشMasnavi, the opening
Ma Zhiyuan 馬致遠
late 13th century · Yuan China
A withered vine, an old tree, crows at dusk. A small bridge, flowing water, a house. An ancient road, the west wind, a lean horse. The evening sun goes down in the west, and a heartbroken man is at the end of the world.
枯藤老樹昏鴉，小橋流水人家，古道西風瘦馬。
夕陽西下，斷腸人在天涯。To the tune "Sky-Clear Sand": autumn thoughts
Babur بابر
February 1529 · Fergana · Kabul · Agra · Even after he had taken India he could not forget the melons and grapes of home
a melon was brought to me; to cut and eat it affected me strangely; I was all tears!Letter to his friend Khwaja Kalan in Kabul, in the Baburnama · in place of the original: the English translation by Annette Beveridge (1922)
Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶
1812 · Edo Japan · Back in his snowbound home village at fifty
So this, then, is my last home? Five feet of snow.
これがまあつひの栖か雪五尺A haiku
Adam Mickiewicz
1834 · Lithuania · Paris
Lithuania, my homeland! You are like health: how much you must be valued, only he learns who has lost you. Today I see and describe your beauty in all its splendour, because I long for you.
Litwo! Ojczyzno moja! ty jesteś jak zdrowie; Ile cię trzeba cenić, ten tylko się dowie Kto cię stracił. Dziś piękność twą w całéj ozdobie Widzę i opisuję, bo tęsknię po tobie.
Pan Tadeusz, the opening
Black Hawk Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak
1838 · Sauk nation, North America
Rock river was a beautiful country--liked my towns, my cornfields, and the home of my people. I fought for it. It is now yours--keep it as we did--it will produce you good crops.
Words spoken at a dinner in the year he died, printed with the Autobiography of Black Hawk
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)
Yi Sanghwa 李相和
1926 · Daegu
Now another's land: does spring come to stolen fields too? With sunlight all over my body, towards the place where blue sky and green field meet, I walk on and on, as in a dream, along a paddy path like a parting in hair.
지금은 남의ᄯᅡᆼ―ᄲᅢ앗긴들에도 봄은오는가?
나는 온몸에 해살을 밧고
푸른한울 푸른들이 맛부튼 곳으로
가름아가튼 논길을ᄯᅡ라 ᄭᅮᆷ속을가듯 거러만간다."Does Spring Come to Stolen Fields?" in Gaebyeok, June 1926
Hayashi Fumiko 林芙美子
1930 · Showa Japan
I am a wanderer by destiny. I have no home town.
私は宿命的に放浪者である。私は古里を持たない。Diary of a Vagabond (Horoki), the opening
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