Hsu Yu, a Chinese writer who emerged in the literary world in the 1930s and 1940s, wrote “Nostalgic Thoughts of Home” while living in Paris.

May 31,1937 in Paris

• In the transient clouds of early morning,
• I see only images of my native home;
• The warm south wind of late April also brings
• Remembered fragrance of once familiar flowers.

• A spot of green appears on the Wutung tree,
• Green, the jade on the lobe of your ear;
• Then in the deepening dusk some raindrops fall,
• Rain, you know, the tears of my cheeks.

He spent a year studying in France until the Sino-Japanese war broke out of which he returned home to Shanghai. This poem is in the book The Chinese Pen, Taipei Chinese Center, International P.E.N. dedicated to his lifetime of writing.

By Keri Douglas, writer/photographer, Washington, D.C.