Poems of Mao
34. Reply to Comrade Kuo Mo-jo (January 9, 1963)
Reply to Comrade Kuo Mo-jo
[a tsu to the melody A river All Red, Man Chiang Hung]
[translated by Nancy Lin]
Just a couple of flies
Up against the wall on a dot of a globe!
They buzz, they hum,
Now in shrill complaint,
Now in broken sobs.
Gnats that talk glibly of uprooting an oak,
Ants vaunting of their Superpower on the Locust Tree!
The west wind is scattering sere leaves
Over the ramparts of Chang-an –
Let fly the Ringing Arrow!
So much to do,
Always in urgency!
Heaven and earth revolve,
Night and day press on.
Millenniums are far away.
The moment is all!
The four seas are heaving in swells of tidal fury,
The five continents rocking with thunderstorms.
Away with all pests to men!
The cause is irresistible.
Notes [by Nancy Lin]
Ants and the Locust Tree: A Tang dynasty story by Li Kung-tso tells of a certain Chunyu Fen dozing under a locust tree and dreaming of becoming an eminent prefect in the Great Locust Kingdom, which he found on waking up to be just an ant-hole under the tree, soon to be washed out too by a storm in the same night.
Gnats and the oak is derived from lines by Han Yu, a Tang poet:
“Gnats trying to topple a giant tree, Ludicrously ignorant of their own impotence.”
The west wind scattering sere leaves over Chang-an: a recast from lines by another Tang poet Chia Tao, alluding here to the essentially decadent state of reactionaries.
Ringing Arrow: arrow with a special whistle attached, shot in ancient days as a signal for battle; it alludes here, among other things, probably to the launching of the Great Polemic in particular. poem speaks of the world-historic significance of Chairman Mao’s leadership and his thought. Mao, however, is availing himself of the occasion to take stock of the world situation as it then exists. The ideological dispute with Soviet Russia is evidently uppermost in his mind. The topical references of flies, ants, and gnats are unmistakable, alluding as they do respectively to the vilifying campaigns, the big-nation chauvinism and obstructionist tactics of the Soviets.
Whereas last week’s poem (#33), speaks of blasts of icy waves, the present poem points to the tidal swells and thunderstorms, i.e. the world-wide movements for independence and liberation among the oppressed nations and oppressed people – what has of late years crystallized into the fighting concept of ‘the Third World’ of which China has declared herself a part. The confidence expressed in the finale reiterates a basic tenet of the poet’s – the people of the world are destined to win.
Kuo Mo-jo’s poem (1963) [from Marxists.org]
When the seas are in turmoil
Heroes are on their mettle.
Six hundred million people,
Strong in unity,
Firm in principle,
Can shore up the falling heavens
And create order out of the reign of chaos.
The world hears the cock crowing
And day breaks in the east.
The sun rises,
The icebergs melt.
Gold is not pinchbeck
And can stand the proof of flames.
Four great volumes
Show us the way.
How absurd for Chieh's dog to bark at Yao;
The clay oxen plunge into the sea and vanish.
The red flag of revolution is unfurling in the east wind,
The universe is glowing red.