Simple poems, simple pleasures

- Fuzhou is Fujian province's capital city

Arriving in Fuzhou the first time seeing a Lychee tree

Every time eat lychee exclaim delicious taste
Lychee tree color never chanced to meet
Today finally can tour city's southern garden
Wide leaves tall branches green drops falling

Chapter 4: Huangpu (the name of the river that flows through and ends in Shanghai)

Graduated from Japan school, returning to Shanghai, I got my first job in an accounting office. Then went to Central Bank. Then the war started, I went inland to work. My wife and children stayed in Shanghai in the Old Cypress compound. [The name of the place where my mom was born and lived until she was ten.] Before the war ended, I was sent by the company back to Shanghai and was captured by the Chinese intelligence agents working for the Japanese who thought I was a spy. Mr Pan and Mr Zu tried to get me out but I will still imprisoned. For more than ten years, I worked in Shanghai.

- 'lun li' Chinese people like to talk about the order of human relationships: mother-daughter, generations, etc.
- The first chapter of the earliest ancient poetry was about husband and wife--'guan ju': 'guan guan' is the sound of the male and female bird responding to each other; 'juzhou' is the name of a water bird. It's like saying love song, and it has come to mean husband and wife.
- Shuching, also known as Shuji, was a fabled person from a poor family. He was very capable and became wealthy and influential. When he was poor, he had thin clothing. When my grandpa and grandma were first married, they were poor and similarly didn't have good clothes.
- Monguang, another historical figure, and his wife were a famous loving couple. He wrote a poem about how they always wrote letters to each other, and an intimate account of her putting on makeup. "Write letters, painting makeup" became a phrase to mean loving couples.
- vegetable root fragrance is a phrase meaning simple pleasures in life
* rhymes in Chinese

Tin Wedding Anniversary Remembrance
Diqing and I were married ten years. Westerners call the 10th anniversary the Tin Anniversary. I didn't have anything else to give her so I wrote her this poem.

Human relationships begin with heavily valuing wife*
Holy teaching song bird the first chapter*
Knows some weave silk fabric beside loom
Also can from kitchen cook soup broth*
My threadbare coat as bad as Shuji's
Your writing letters as loving as Monguang*
Care for little study accompany nightly reading
Poetry literature taste lasting vegetable root fragrance*