ICS Translations

There is no need to be happy or worry though! This is a recollection of the events of World War III in a Chinese poem. Written in the late sixties of the last century, the poem is titled ‘Dedicated to the Warrior of the Third World War (献给 第三次世界大战的勇士)’. In the poem, WWIII has been fought as the last war to eliminate the system of exploitation (read imperialist and capitalist exploitation). America has been defeated by the Chinese forces; and, as a result, the great edifice of communism will be built in America and elsewhere. The teachings of Mao, the will of Lenin, the vision of Marx shall be realised. The world is red! It is a fantasy poem. Nobody knows who wrote it. What is known is that it was written around 1968–69 by a red guard (the foot soldiers of the Cultural Revolution) — some say the red guard was female, most say male. Dr. Cheng Xiaonong, a Chinese–American author, when talking about this poem says that he remembers reading it in the late sixties when he lived in Shanghai. As revealed through the review of available literature on this poem, it exchanged hands in the form of a tradition called shichao (诗抄); roughly translated it means ‘poetry copy’.