Cold window

I see that both today's poems emphasize studying. It has been a long held value, this one of education, studying hard, and is emblematic of being Chinese. I never studied very hard but the value of education is kind of in my bones--valuing intellect and scholastic achievements. I may have mentioned before that I'm the least formally educated person in my family. It's not something that I feel bad about, I guess I feel more like an American in comparison but I still am automatically impressed with MIT grads or PhDs--which is totally Chinese of me.

[Nainai's two parallel stanzas of three lines, first and second of six words, third of seven words.

Notes:
- There's a saying about students who haven’t yet taken entrance exams that translates literally to "cold window bitter study".
- Suen is my dad. He's the third son so normally would have been called San (meaning three) but because in the two generations preceding his the third born sons had died early, their family stopped using that word and changed to Suen instead, which comes from the words suen li (smooth) and suen fu (obedient, submissive).
- I asked my dad and he doesn't remember the poem he wrote that is mentioned in the description but assumes it written before he began his PhD, the year before he was married in 1967. This year, my parents had their 45th anniversary.]

1967, son Suen sent me a poem and asked me to respond. For a while, I didn’t have any inspiration to write anything. Until a mid-July evening, I was looking at the moon, and it inspired me to write this.

Corner of earth lives hopeful mother
Wishes follow moon light beams traverse
Watch sons daughters cold window bitter study
Sons left home dreams sky high
I hope you reach goals soon
Honoring ancestors brings joy to whole family

[Gonggong's 10 lines of 7 words

Notes:
- My mom remembers her dad saying that even though his dad was not a landlord but a poor peasant they were always glad they had enough rice. Not many vegetables, just hot peppers. So they'd eat a little pepper, then a lot of rice, a bit more pepper, a lot more rice. Hubei province, where he grew up, is known for spicy food.
- In elementary school, students were taught about people who studied hard as model examples, fables on the virtues of education. There was a man ("I don’t know who," says my mom) who studied and when it was dark and he had no light, he’d go outside and study by the light of fireflies and the glints from snow.]

A description of experiencing hunger. When I was studying in Japan, at first I stayed in a place that didn’t have a kitchen. I had to go to the little street vendors. Even though these diners weren’t expensive, I didn’t have much money to eat and the food wasn’t very good. The street vendors were far from where I stayed. Sometimes I studied late and missed the hours they were open. I’d be hungry and have to walk fast in order to get there before they closed. This kind of difficult feeling is hard to describe but I wrote this to make a memory of what I experienced at that time. Later on, I moved to a place with three other roommates and we could cook, which eliminated this stress.

Hunger Burning

Endured much to cross east, for what
Gain loss only your heart knows which
Course work so broad like the sea
Firefly snow zeal none dare fall away
Dawn dark drill search still not enough
Read study focus often miss meal time
Rough food from street vendor tastes sweet
Skinny skin bones thin strength fails weak
Tired yet shoes hurry on hunger burning
Right when every home rice finish cooking