What does this poem mean exactly? Is it just the poet out on the sea missing his children, or is there more to it? Would the theme just be solitude?
"In the land of Wu the mulberry leaves are green,
And three times the silkworms have gone off to sleep.
In East Luh where my family stay,
I wonder who is sowing those fields of ours.
I cannot be back in time for the spring work,
I can help with nothing, traveling on the river.
The south wind blowing wafts my homesick spirit
And carries it up to the front of our familiar tavern.
There I see a peach tree on the east side of the house
With thick leaves and branches waving in the blue mist.
It is the tree I planted before my parting three years ago.
The peach tree has grown now as tall as the tavern roof,
While I have wandered about without returning.
Ping-yang, my pretty daughter, I see you stand
By the peach tree and pluck a flowering branch.
You pluck the flowers, but I am not there;
How your tears flow like a stream of water!
My little son, Po-chin, grown up to your sister's shoulders,
You come out with her under the peach tree,
But who is there to pat you on the back?
When I think of these things, my senses fail,
And a sharp pain cuts my heart every day.
Now I tear off a piece of white silk to write this letter,
And send it to you with my love a long way up the river."
It seems to have a feeling and emotion of lonliness in a solitary state of happiness and depression tied together. A man who misses his children and wife, possibly in war or has gone away for some unknown reason, and still loves them unconditionally even from far away.