He often thought about going back for a visit to the villages where he was forced to settle down 30 years ago.  He'd like to find out if folks there are doing better now; if, every morning, new bamboo shoots would continue to pop up and pierce his bare feet; and if, after a downpour, the stream where he used to fetch water and do laundry would again become yellow and muddy.  Those were the years when Yannan was still young, was very idealistic but simple- and single-minded.  He used to make wooden swords and clubs out of tree branches; he used to wrap Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poems with red revolutionary book title pages, took them and memorized them while he was trudging, alone and along, the mountain paths and unpaved roads for two hours and more.

          --passage from Yannan's 1999 Chinese letter

他还想去他三十年前下放过的地方（南靖）走走，看看老乡亲（希望他们都还健在），踏踏田埂路。山径上，可仍有新竹笋破土而出，抵痛足跟？小溪旁，一场急雨可又带来浊浊山洪，以至洗不成衣裳？那是燕南七分年轻，十分奋进，十三分幼稚的岁月。他曾砍下树木做刀棍，用红书皮包裹他自己打字摘录的英语名篇选读，在漫漫的山区公路上边走边背诵朗费罗（Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807-1882）的诗篇，又志高气盛不知深浅地卷入和他本不相干的地方宗派纷争。

       -摘自1999年圣诞节家书