To the Swallows Coming to My Boat [Tang Poems]

— Du Fu

Another spring in boat I stay;

Again swallows peck clods of clay.

You know me in my native land;

Now gazing from afar you stand.

Ah, here and there you build your nest;

Now and again I find no rest.

You greet me and then leave the mast;

My tears stream down to see you past.

Note

Du Fu (712–770 CE), revered as China’s “Poet-Sage,” is celebrated for his deeply compassionate, technically masterful poetry that captures the human cost of war, exile, and social upheaval during the Tang Dynasty. His works blend personal vulnerability with historical awareness, often using nature to reflect inner turmoil.

His poem “Swallows Come to My Boat” (Yan Zi Lai Zhou Zhong Zuo) was written during his later years while drifting as a refugee in southern China (modern Hunan). Having lived far from home for over a year, Du Fu observes swallows returning for the second spring to build nests – creatures of habit and belonging. He recalls how these same birds once knew him in his garden, recognizing him as their host. Now, on the day of the Spring Sacrifice (‘She Ri’), they eye him from a distance, uncertain. 

The poet draws a heartbreaking parallel: just as the swallows now nest anywhere out of necessity, so too is he – a wanderer with no fixed home, adrift on a boat. When a swallow briefly perches on his mast, it seems to offer fleeting companionship, but soon flies off, skimming flowers and water. That momentary connection moves him to tears.

This quiet, intimate poem transforms a simple natural encounter into a powerful meditation on displacement, memory, and the fragile longing for home.

燕子来舟中作
— 杜甫

湖南为客动经春，

燕子衔泥两度新。

旧入故园尝识主，

如今社日远看人。

可怜处处巢居室，

何异飘飘托此身。

暂语船樯还起去，

穿花贴水益沾巾。