(September 1957)
Over a thousand li, waves surge in tumultuously,
Snowflakes fly toward Diaoyutai⑶.
Crowds of people marvel at the grand formation;
Iron horses⑶ return calmly after vanquishing the enemy.
[1] Watching the tidal bore refers to admiring the tidal bore at the mouth of the Qiantang River in Zhejiang Province. The most spectacular sight occurs on the eighteenth day of the eighth lunar month each year at Haining. On September 11, 1957 (corresponding to the eighteenth day of the eighth lunar month), Mao Zedong traveled by car to Qixing Temple in Haining to observe the tide.
[2] Diaoyutai, also known as Zhuotai, is located along the Fuchun River in the middle reaches of the Qiantang River. It is traditionally said to be the place where Yan Guang (Ziling) of the Eastern Han Dynasty lived in seclusion and fished.
[3] Iron Horse: a warhorse clad in iron armor, used metaphorically to refer to a mighty and vigorous army. In Lu You’s poem “A Great Storm on November 4th,” he writes: “Late at night I lie awake listening to the wind and rain; in my dreams come iron horses and icy rivers.” When the tidal bore of the Qiantang River surges in, the waves are so raging that one can almost hear “the roar of a hundred thousand troops.”