Yu the Beauty · On the Pillow

(1921)

Piled upon the pillow, what form does sorrow take? [1] Rivers and seas churn with waves.

The night is long, the sky’s hue always hard to brighten,

In loneliness I throw on a coat, sit up, and count the cold stars. [2]

At dawn a hundred thoughts all turn to ashes, [3] leaving only the parted one’s [4] shadow.

A hook of the waning moon [5] flows westward,

Facing this, there is no reason not to shed tears.

[1] In Mao Zedong’s handwritten manuscript, the line ends with a question mark.

[2] Mao’s handwritten manuscript reads: “Helpless, I throw on a coat, sit up in the thin chill.”

[3] Mao’s handwritten manuscript reads: “At dawn a hundred thoughts all turn to ashes.”

[4] The parted one refers to the author’s wife, Yang Kaihui. Yang Kaihui (1901–1930), a native of Changsha, Hunan, joined the Communist Party of China in 1921. She was in charge of confidential work and communications for the CPC Hunan Regional Committee, and later accompanied the author to Shanghai, Wuhan, and other places. After the defeat of the Great Revolution in 1927, she hid in Bancang, Changsha, persisting in underground work. In October 1930 she was arrested by the Kuomintang reactionaries and died a martyr in November. In the winter of 1920, she married Mao Zedong in Changsha.

[5] Waning moon: the hook-shaped moon at daybreak. Song dynasty Mei Yaochen’s “After a Dream, Sent to Ouyang Yongshu”: “At the fifth watch a thousand-li dream, / The waning moon over a city of roosters.”

Yu the Beauty · On the Pillow
Mao Zedong’s handwritten manuscript of “Yu the Beauty · On the Pillow.”