Often, with chalk in hand, I stood

In the packed room, looking into

Your youthful eyes eager and trustful,

A sense of duty swelled in me.

　

Our acquaintance is not ages old,

Our gatherings have been few,

Yet I like you all, and for life

I seem to have known you.

　

In you, friends, I find

My lost youth, my long quest—

Simple and sincere,

Homely but honest.

　

They are the values that bear us

Through life’s smile and sneer;

They are the values that we share,

And that have brought us near.

　

Tumultuous though the world is,

Elusive though life may seem,

As long as we treasure our own values,

Consistent and intact we will remain.

　

January 12, 1986, Xiamen University

　

J.H. and class of ’81 were students in a spare-time college in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, China.