On the first anniversary of his death

Who is he, this Xu Mengxiong?
Asked readers of The World of English?
¡°This ninety-year-old professor,
Who answers our endless questions
With such awesome expertise
And inexhaustible patience.
Never missing a single issue.¡±

I didn't know much about him either,
Though I did know other professors,
Gurus who sat on academic committees,
Wrote for academic publications,
Frequented academic conferences
Held in many tourist attractions,
And regaled polite audiences..

Xu Mengxiong was a nobody,
His name was not even mentioned
At professional gatherings.
He had been even less, three cheers!
A non-person, a stinking cow demon,
Tucked away who knows how many years,
In his native Fujian mountains.

No tears did he shed for his own exile,
But was tormented by the memory
Of a starving woman on a mountain pass
Who had offered him her young body
For a one-yuan bill for a bite to eat.
He gave her the money and wept,
¡°God keep your body inviolate!¡±

Now tucked away in a suburban hole,
¡°Rehabilitated¡± with a pacemaker,
He raced against his dwindling sands,
To help open starving young minds
To visions of brave new lands.
He had not a minute to waste
On frivolities the gurus chased.

He also wept for another dame
Who had vowed to share his weal and woe,
But betrayed him when the storm came,
Only to find herself betrayed too.
Burying her body with untainted love,
He joined her soul in a reunion
That defies the devil and time.

Professor Xu Mengxiong,
The pages of The World of English
Will mourn your absence,
But we your readers' minds
Sing your living presence.
Xu Mengxiong, a legend
That defies the devil and time.

1999