Only a few years ago, while I was cleaning my mother’s bedroom after her fall, that I found poems my parents wrote to each other while dating. I wasn’t surprised to see poems my mother wrote because I knew about her interest in literature and poetry. She had written many poems in her youth and continued to do that in her old age. She constantly recites poems that she had memorized, even now when she has dementia. But neither my father nor mother ever told me about my father’s writings. I was floored.
And then just recently, I found poems my parents wrote to each other later in life! My father not only used to write poems in his youth, he did so when he was already a grandpa. My parents confessed their love to each other on a Valentine’s Day. Oh my. My parents never talked romance. They never talked love. The word love doesn’t exist in their language. Or does it? With these poems, I stand corrected.
Someone was kind to offer to make a picture. I supplied the poems and a picture of my parents taken shortly after their wedding. She designed the page.
This is not a translation. I don’t even claim that my words extract all the essence of my parents’ poems. But not everyone reads my parents’ language, I want to at least express some of their love in English for the majority of my audience.
Mom’s poem written on February 14, 1992:
On Valentine’s Day I send you a page
Loving you just like the first days we met
We have been through so much together
In sickness and health we adored each other
I weave a poem to express my love
The love that has deepened with age
The moon is the witness to our love
On Valentine’s Day I send you a page
Dad’s poem written on March 3, 1992 as a response to Mom’s poem:
I am so touched to receive a page
I remember the days when we first met
Under the moonlight we built our dreams
And the gods smiled on us through the years
Our poetry is woven with golden rays
As the evening light dances on your face
Faithfully I am forever yours
I am so touched to receive a page
