Not a poem in the sense of Western definition, but a list of Chinese characters that are to be designated as names for each generation of the Chin clan. Den Len was 7th generation. His generation name, Den (登) is the 7th character in the poem.
It is a customary tradition that each male member of a generation are given a generation name. However, this custom is loosely followed and there may be departures from the custom.
There are 50 characters in the Chin Family Generation Poem, corresponding to 50 past and future generations of Chin members. Den Len (William Chin See) and his brother Den Luen (Henry Levy Chin’s father) constitute the 7th generation. Their generation name, Den (登) is the 7th character in the poem. Henry Levy Chin is of the 8th generation. His generation name, Fah ( 發) is the 8th character in the poem.
Shown below are the individual characters in the generation poem along with the pinyin pronunciation for each character. The generations are ordered from left to right and top to bottom.
振 俊 文 華 國 Zhèn jùn wén huá guó 高 登 發 桂 香 Gāo dēng fā guì xiāng 錦 添 嘉 美 煥 Jǐn tiān jiā měi huàn 時 泰 運 初 長 Shí tài yùn chū zhǎng 世 上 居 全 盛 Shì shàng jū quán shèng 南 朝 建 大 方 Nán cháo jiàn dà fāng 開 懷 紹 業 就 Kāi huái shào yè jiù 乾 坤 福 滿 堂 Gān kūn fú mǎn táng 千 年 昌 吉 慶 Qiān nián chāng jí qìng 萬 代 樂 安 康 Wàn dài lè ān kāng