Cold

On a snowy stormy night

1. 
Cold night rain snow blowing blustery eve
Happen upon a sorrowful person who cannot dream
The past is water, long flowed by
How can you bear tracing back your old feelings?

2. 
A person's feelings actually deceive one's self
Young spring's short stay is hard to grasp
In the blink of an eye time leaps away
Cannot know when you'll again return to old dreams

- young spring is a metaphor for youth 


Year's end

This year end has come,
Outside person so far away.
Head board gold already gone,
Case bottom sword now gray.
Rain drizzling very cold spring,
Way long road muddy loam.
When'll land have order, peace?
Ragged clothes yet think: home.  

- outside person is the one at war or at work or a student, anyone who has left home
- head board is where Chinese traditionally kept money (like 'under the mattress')
- the usual saying is: when your clothes are nice, you think of going home

15, 60, and 30 years

The facts about my marriage and the road of my life

Fighting birds become a happy couple
Flee from war westward to Sichuan
After victory return to hometown
Run away from the red plague
On the island of Taiwan, our hands were rend 
Peaceful living for fifteen years 
Follow my children traveling America
Whole life experienced all kinds of things
Ruddy complexion changes to white hair
Old age no desires or pursuits
Waiting for the heavenly land
I arrived to the Yung family sixty autumns ago
When youth becomes aged, what do you still want?
Time after time, the whole night often think back
Remembering those years and cry streams of tears
Reading Buddha studying scripture to prevent suffocating
Cultivate heart tend heart don't chase dreams


A hundred words on Hatong

Jewish nation disintegrated
Their people covered in dark dust
  Most pitiful person Hatong
  Nothing else but his self
Wandered the eastern sea to Shanghai
Songhu was a deserted village
  New growing commercial shipping port
  Poor sick work as sentry guard
Bought cheap waterfront land
Without much thought he purchased
  Thirty years later, a thriving city
  An inch of land becomes an inch of gold
One day his wealth exceeds a nation's
Fancy buildings called Jialing
  He didn't plan to retain his wealth
  Eagles dogs lawlessly attack
Developed nice Hatong Road
Deserted empty Aili Garden
  Our lives are like springtime dreams
  This one left a trace 

The Jewish people didn't have a country, so they wandered around. Hatong was of Jewish decent. When Hatong first came to Shanghai, it was a desolate fishing village. He was very poor and sick. He became a door guard for a foreign company. After some time, he bought a lot of land at a low price. Later, the land value increased and he became a millionaire. He married a Chinese woman named Jialing and named many buildings after his wife. He became an influential developer and philanthropist. Hatong Road was a nice part of town. 

Notes:
Songhu is an older name for Shanghai.
Aili (loving couple) Garden was the nicest garden in Shanghai for a while, then was neglected.
The usual saying is that spring dreams leave no trace.