The Long March - Poem by Mao Zedong
Chinese Poetry
The Long March
by
Mao Zedong
The Long March
The Long March (October 1934 – October 1935) was an historic journey of 6,000 miles, in which Communist army forces fled their bases in Jiangxi province in south China. Surrounded by the Nationalist army of Chiang Kai-shek, some 80,000 soldiers of the Red Army escaped and headed north. Only 8,000 to 9,000 survived the trek, which ended in the establishment of a new Communist base in Yan'an. The Long March became the central event in Chinese revolutionary mythology. It became a metaphor for the revolution itself, and was a source of inspiration for Red Guards on their own "new long marches."
Mao Zedong eulogized the Long March in a poem:
红军不怕远征难，万水千山只等闲。
五岭逶迤腾细浪，乌蒙磅礴走泥丸。
金沙水拍云崖暖，大渡桥横铁索寒。
更喜岷山千里雪，三军过后尽开颜。
THE LONG MARCH
A lu shih
October 1935
The Red Army fears not the trials of the March,
Holding light ten thousand crags and torrents.
The Five Ridges wind like gentle ripples
And the majestic Wumeng roll by, globules of clay.
Warm the steep cliffs lapped by the waters of Golden Sand,
Cold the iron chains spanning the Tatu River.
Minshan's thousand li of snow joyously crossed,
The three Armies march on, each face glowing.
