I left my home in West Lake
        in the sunshine of my youth
        the world to discover-
        mum wept and said: 'Do be good'.

       I consoled her and dad:
      'Your ways I'll follow in my sojourn
      a letter home I'll send every week
      I'll do you both proud--be of no concern'.

     A village -school I became
     Confucian culture I taught
      also the best of Tang and Sung poetry
      all my pupils found in rapture wrapped.

     The salary was poor
     in a abandoned barn I slept
     reading at night in candle-light
     hardship I did endure and accept.

    The beautiful daughter of the headmaster
    by the green summer- field I met
   ' So delightful are the poems you wrote':
     (to me with beaming eyes) she lovingly said.
  
     Her picture I sent to mum and dad gladly
      'Ming, you're no longer young'. they confided
     ' it 's time you settled down- Mei is so pretty-
     we hope you'll be married ere we're dead'

    Mei came to the barn one early night
    to her my poems I read:
    her eyes welled in tears
   '  I love you- so very  much' she suddenly said.
      
     Two years quickly passed by
     Mei's dad from cancer suffered
     ' Ming, you're like a son to me
       take over from me'  he pleaded with a look so sad.
      
     On a  sunny day Mei and I tied the knot
     mum and dad travelled 8,000 li* and attended
     we had the village's Chief and all the dignitaries' patronage
     the event was the most ever celebrated.
    
  * the Chinese mile, 500 metres