Poems of Mao

30. Fairy Cave, Lushan: Inscription on a Photograph (September 9, 1961)

Fairy Cave, Lushan: Inscription on a Photograph

[a shih in seven-word regular, Chi Chueh]

[translated by Nancy Lin]

That pine tree –

Hale and sturdy against the twilight’s gray:

How unruffled she is

In face of the riotous clouds

That sail tearing by!

And the unique Fairy Cave,

All nature-hewed,

Stands on the perilous summit

Commanding a boundless view!

Notes [by Nancy Lin]

Written at a time when China was going through the critical years of natural calamities and international encirclement. The 22^nd Congress of the Soviet Communist Party was to come in a month and a showdown on the ideological dispute looked inevitable.

The pine and cave images as presented in the poem are presumably meant for true proletarian revolutionaries who are capable of facing storms in equanimity and ready to run supreme risks in pursuit of communist ideals. “The pine”, comments Mao, “standing erect and firm against the severities of winter, is a tree of high principle.”

Fairy Cave: the famous natural cave at the Cliff of Buddha’s Hand on the west side of Kuling, where Chou Tien, a Taoist immortal, is said to have dwelled once.

[next - 31. Reply to Comrade Kuo Mo-jo, November 1961]