Poems of Mao

7. On the Road to Kwangchang [ February 1930]

On the Road to Kwangchang

[a tsu, to the melody of Mulan Blossom (Shorter Version), Chientsu Mulan Hua]

[Translated by Nancy Lin]

The skies blaze white.

We march through the snow,

The more set for the fight.

Overhead, the mountains mass.

Red flags, flapping in the wind,

Sweep across the Great Pass.

Where from here must we go?

Down the River Kan

In a maze of raging snow.

For the word yesterday says it straight:

A hundred thousand workers and peasants

Shall march upon Chi-an, to liberate!

Notes [by Nancy Lin]

Mountains mentioned in the poem refer most probably to the mountain ranges in the Yutu-Ningtu region north of Juichin.

The Kan River is the largest river in Kiangsi and Chi-an is situated just at its mid-course.

After taking a number of counties in east Kiangsi in 1930, the Red Army climaxed the campaign with nine attacks on Chi-an, the principal city in central Kiangsi, between February and October. The liberation of most parts of southern Kiangsi in the year paved the ground for the institution of the Central Red Area with Juichin as its headquarters.

This poem was written on the way to Kwangchang, an important county in east Kiangsi, pending the engagement at Chi-an further west.