True romance: Love poems join two hearts for 62 years

Chen Lianfang (left) and Feng Duan. [Photo/Sina Weibo]

"You will be in my heart forever. Without you, there are only emptiness and desert in my life…"

This is a line from a heartfelt poem Feng Duan wrote to his fiancée Chen Lianfang in 1955.

Feng is now 94 and Chen 90, and they have been married for more than a half century.

Feng, an academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, may not be a professional poet but for 62 years, Feng has written countless love poems to his wife.

On every important anniversary or festival, Feng would send a poem to Chen. In 1978, when Chen's cancer surgery succeeded, Feng created more than ten poems to celebrate his wife's recovery.

Chen used a red suitcase to store these love poems.

The academic has also translated many English, French and German poems into classical Chinese.

The couple was introduced to each other by a common friend in 1953 and Feng sent two paper copies of poems to Chen as a gift.

"As long as I think of you, a beam of sunshine lights up my heart," Feng wrote.

Chen recalled the first time Feng invited her to his dormitory to have a cup of tea and she thought the cup was made of frosted glass. As the two became closer, Chen often visited the academic's dorm, she realized that the cup was the only one poor Feng owned. The opaque cup was not frosted glass but common glass stained with toothpaste.

Later she bought many clothes and even a stove for Feng, making a nice change from the single man's life.

Feng's marriage to Chen brought more happiness and now Chen still looks after Feng's daily needs.