May 19 2007
Reascending Jinggan Mountain
Reascending Jinggan Mountain is the name of a Mao’s poem that we all learned to memorize at school. Written during his re-visit there May 22-29 1965, 38 years after the first gun shot that ultimately established the PLA. Very testosterone, not my most favored of his, but there are few lines that I like to use, from time to time.
(Translation by Gu Zhengkun):
With a long-cherished clouds-reaching ideal,
I again visit Jinggang Mountain with zeal.
Covering a thousand miles to view the old land,
I see the former scene become newly grand.
Everywhere swallows dance, orioles sing,
And streams splash and ring,
A high way mounts to the cloud’s wing.
The boundary of Hunagyangjie is passed once.
No other passes deserve a glance.
Behold! In this human world
Wind and thunder are heard to roar,
Flags and banners gaudily soar.
Thirty-eight years are past,
So quickly as if you snapped a finger fast.
Up in the Ninth Heaven we can pluck the moon,
Down in the Five Oceans we may seize turtles soon,
In triumph we return with laughters and songs boon.
In this world nothing is hard to do,
Try scaling the heights, success attend you!