Verses in ep 3 are a mix of two poetries

I'm neither a Mandarin speaker nor a particular poetry lover, but I've googled Xu Qian's verses (as they've seemed somehow "familiar", I've immediately thought of Zhang Ruoyun's "drunken" masterpiece performance in Joy of Life S1, reciting the verses of Chinese poetry classics).

The first couplet is from a Wang Wei's (?-761, Tang Dynasty) "Nostalgia for My Brothers on the Double Ninth Day"
All alone in a foreign land,
I am twice as homesick on this day.

but the following couplet of the original is different:
When brothers carry dogwood up the mountain,
Each of them a branch -- and my branch missing.

In his present day life, Xu Qian is not a scholar but a salesman and his poetry ignorance probably adds to the fun of those who have studied the ancient C-poetry, because he confuses the second couplet with Gao Shi's (高适) couplet from “Farewell to Dong Da” we've seen in a poetic 3D animated historical film "Chang'an":

Fear not you’ve no admirers as you go along!
There is no connoisseur on earth apart from (who) loves your song

(Gao telling Dong that though they were doomed to part, Dong would surely find new close friends in the future)

Sources:
"Nostalgia for my Brothers" http://www.china.org.cn/chinese/catl/en/2015-10/21/content_36854351.htm
“Farewell to Dong Da,” https://www.theworldofchinese.com/2020/06/friendship-in-verse/

ShortCircuit

14 hours ago

Thank you! I was wondering what poems he mixed up ('cause it's obvious he mixed them up LOL).

At least Fan Xian knew his poetry hahaha~

AleksandraSucur

14 hours ago

Yeah, Fan Xian was a poetry nerd 🙃lol!

Hahaha, how did you sense the poetry was mixed up, I've discovered it only tnx to google...

ShortCircuit

13 hours ago

One of them talks about being away and lonely, the other half is about being recognized even by that one person and making it worth it, LOL, they can't be on the same topic :D (He also totally looked as if he had forgotten the rest of the original one, and then there was the quip about him not knowing his Mandarin all that well, LOL. It was an obvious set up for such a misquote).

I am no expert, LOL, the ONE poem I know of ancient Chinese poetry is Li Po's Alone Looking at the Mountain (and that's another beautiful poem about being lonely but content with it).

https://allpoetry.com/Alone-Looking-at-the-Mountain

If Xu QiAn ends up quoting Li Po I'll lose it completely LOL.