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Meng Chiao - Song of the Wanderer
Identifier
012862
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Meng Chiao (A.D. 751 - 814) - Song of the Wanderer
Thread in the hand of a loving mother
Is worked into the coat
of her wayward boy.
Firm and close she sets the stitches now
For she fears he will be slow, slow
to return.
Who can say that the heart
of an inch-long grass
Will repay the sunlight
of full Spring?*
* The last two lines are stock metaphors which are readily comprehensible in Chinese. "The heart of an inch-long grass" means the most exiguous and ardent affection, and "the sunlight of full Spring" means the tender and benign influence of a parent's love.