Swimming: A Poem by Chairman Mao

From the PRC Press: Chairman Mao, our most respected and beloved great leader, had a good swim in the Yangtse River, braving the wind and waves on July 16 last year (1966). It left on indelible, happy memory in our minds and greatly inspired, the people throughout China and the world to go forward courageously in the storms of class struggle.

Translation of the poem first published in English in 1967.

Swimming

to the melody Shui Tiao Keh Tou (2)

I have just drunk the waters of Changsha,

And eaten the fish of Wuchang; (3)

Now I am crossing the thousand-mile long river.

Looking afar to the open sky of Chu (4)

I care not that the wind blows and the waves beat:

It is better than idly strolling in a courtyard.

Today I am free!

It was on a river that the Master said:

"Thus is the whole of Nature flowing!'' (5)

Masts move in the swell;

Tortoise and Snake are still. (6)

Great plans are being made;

A bridge will fly to join the north and south,

A deep chasm become a thoroughfare;

Walls of stone will stand upstream to the west (7)

To hold back Wushan's clouds and rain, (8)

And the narrow gorges will rise to a level lake.

The mountain goddess, if she still is there,

Will be startled to find her world so changed

1) In May 1956, the author swam the Yangtse from Wuchang to Hankow. That summer he swam it a second and a third time from Hanyang to Wuchang. This poem refers to his first crossing.

2) Shui Tiao was an ancient tune. Keh Tou means the first section.

3) A folk song of the Three Kingdoms period ran:

We would rather drink the waters of Chienyeh

Than eat the fish of Wuchang.

The people of Wu were opposed to the removal of the capital from Chienyeh, present-day Nanking, to Wuchang.

4) Wuchang was part of the ancient land of Chu.

5) The Analects of Confucius records that when the sage came to the bank of a river he exclaimed: ''Thus is the whole of Nature flowing ceaselessly day and night!''

6) The Tortoise Hill at Hanyang and the Snake Hill at Wuchang face each other across the Yangtse. The Yangtse Bridge is constructed between these two hills.

7) Referring to a dam to be built further upstream.

8) A famous mountain in the Yangtse Gorges. Legend has it that the goddess of this mountain controls the clouds and the rain