Two Poems - Mao Tsetung
Chairman Mao has long been respected as a prolific poet and writer. He connected well with the peasant class and made a name for himself from his poetry and grasp of the poetic aspects of the Chinese language.
In this issue of the China Pictorial, published in 1976, are two of his poems more fitting for the time.
Chingkangshan Revisited
—to the tune of Shui Tiao Keh Tou, May 1965
I have long aspired to reach for the clouds, again I come from afar to climb Chingshangshan, our old haunt.
Past scenes are transformed, orioles sing swallows swirl, streams purl everywhere and the road mounts skyward.
Once Huangyangchieh is passed no other perilous place calls for a glance.
Wind and thunder are stirring, flags and banners are flying wherever men live.
Thirty-eight years are fled with a mere snap of the fingers.
We can clasp the moon in the Ninth Heaven, and seize turtles deep down in the Five Seas: We’ll return amid triumphant song and laughter.
Nothing is hard in this world if you dare to scale the heights.
Two Birds: A Dialogue
—to the tune of Nien Nu Chiao, Autumn 1965
The roc wings fanwise, soaring ninety thousand li and rousing a raging cyclone.
The blue sky on his back, he looks down to survey man’s world with its towns and cities.
Gunfire licks the heavens, shells pit the earth.
A sparrow in his bush is scared stiff.
“This is one hell of a mess! O I want to flit and fly away.”
“Where, may I ask?”
The sparrow replies, “To a jewelled palace in elfland’s hills. Don’t you know a triple pact was signed under the bright autumn moon two years ago? There’ll be plenty to eat, Potatoes piping hot with beef thrown in.”*
“Stop your windy nonsense! Look you, the world is being turned upside down.”
(Originally published in the January 1976 issue of the journal “Shikan” [Poetry])
* Refers to “goulash”
Below are the inside pages 2 & 3 of the Pictorial.
