At Shaoshan
[a shih in seven-word regular, Chi Lu]
[translated by Nancy Lin]
Arrived at Shaoshan June 25, 1959 after an absence of thirty-two years.
In dim dreams away from home
Still do I curse that long-fled past –
Thirty-two years ago
On this native soil!
Red flags flying,
The serfs rose –
Sticks pitted against whips
Which the scoundrel lords were wielding
High and mighty with hands infernal-black.
Many, many were those
Who laid down their lives in noble resolve,
Who dared to move Sun and Moon
To lay out a New Sky!
Happy now – I watch
This sea of paddy and corn
Surge in boundless green
As heroes from the fields around
Start homeward at the rise of evening smoke.
Notes [by Nancy Lin]
Shaoshan: Mao’s birthplace, a village 100 kilometers southwest of Changsha, surrounded by hills green with pines and cedars. Mao attended his primary school here before he left for the middle school in Hsianghsiang at the age of 16. He returned in 1924 to organize some 20 peasant associations, and again early in 1927 when he was making investigations of the peasant movement in Hunan with the consequent historic report in support of peasant uprisings.
This poem written a decade after liberation is not one of reminiscence alone, but an affirmation of the program for the People’s Commune, as the concluding lines indicate, against criticisms within the Party and hostile assails from abroad.
In sending this poem and the next [#27 - Ascending Lushan] to the Poetry Magazine, September 1, the poet had this to say in comment:
“It would be unthinkable if the great cause of 650 million people should have gone untouched by the wild flames and curses of the imperialists and their running dogs in various lands. The more violent their curses the better I feel … These two poems are my answers.”
Note a variant interpretation of the line 4 in the Chinese original: ‘Black hands’ is taken by some commentators to mean the powerful dirt-covered hands of the revolting peasants, who had succeeded in seizing the control once exercised by the landlords.
(See Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, Vol. 1, ‘Report on Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan’, Section 6.)