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Reply to Mr. Liu Ya-Tzu

Poems | Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung

REPLY TO MR. LIU YA-TZU

--a lu shih

April 29, 1949

I still remember our drinking tea in Kwangchow
And your asking for verses in Chungking as the leaves yellowed.
Back in the old capital after thirty-one years,
At the season of falling flowers I read your polished lines.
Beware of heartbreak with grievance overfull,
Range far your eye over long vistas.
Do not say the waters of Kunming Lake are too shallow,
For watching fish they are better than Fuchun River.

LIU YA-TZU'S POEM

MY THOUGHTS PRESENTED TO CHAIRMAN MAO

--a lu sbih

You excel as the maker of a new epoch!
Hard it was for me to laud Light in dark times.
Lecturing on classics, I am no time-serving scholar
And, to my sorrow, have met with no warm reception.
Remorse fills me at the thought of my misspent life,
Yet my heart will remain true to the end.
O for glad tidings from the southern expedition!
Lake Fenhu will then be my hermit resort.

Poems | Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung

Source: marxists.org — original. Shared freely for study.