Three Stanzas Written at Meiling
ChenYi

In the winter of 1936, we were besieged at Meiling and I lay wounded in the bushes for more than twenty days. Not expecting to escape, I wrote these three stanzas and kept them in my pocket. However, the siege was lifted.

What if my head falls today?
Revolution is hard; it takes a hundred battles.
I shall rally my comrades of old in the nether regions,
A mighty host to wipe out the King of Hell.

Beacons have blazed in the south ten long years;
This head of mine may hang from the city gate,
But you who live on must make redoubled efforts:
News of your victories will be our paper coins. (1)

This revolution has been my home;
Though heaven rains blood, slaughter eventually ends.
Today our just cause claims our lives
Sowing flowers of freedom over the earth.


(1)In old China, paper coins were offerings burned for the dead.