Changgan Song: Where Is Your Home?
Where is your home?
I live at Hengtang.
I stop the boat to ask for a moment;
Perhaps we come from the same place.
Notes
Changgan is a historical place in the area of present-day Nanjing and an old Yuefu song title. Qie is a woman’s self-reference; Hengtang is a place name. The speaker stops a boat to ask whether the other person might be from the same home region.
Meaning
A woman on a boat asks where another traveler lives, gives her own home as Hengtang, and wonders whether they share a home region.
Appreciation
A direct question immediately places the reader in an encounter on the water.
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The speaker asks and then gives her own home, in language close to ordinary conversation.
Stopping the boat creates an action; “perhaps” keeps the shared origin a question rather than a known fact.
Read it beside the companion poem and consider how question and answer form a brief exchange.
About the poet
Cui Hao (c. 704–754) was a Tang poet from the area of present-day Kaifeng, Henan.
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He held office and wrote about frontier life, journeys and everyday encounters.
His works include Yellow Crane Tower and the Changgan songs.