Comrades ××× and ××:

Your letter has been received. I have recently composed two seven-character regulated poems, which I am now submitting for your review and revision. If you deem them suitable, they may be published in the poetry journal.

Lately, rightist opportunism has been mounting a frenzied offensive, finding fault with every aspect of the people’s cause. All the anti-China, anti-Communist elements throughout the world, as well as the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois opportunist elements that have infiltrated our own proletariat and Party ranks, are colluding both inside and out to launch this savage assault. By Jove, it is as if they were trying to topple the Kunlun Mountains! But hold on, comrades! A tiny clique of opportunists within our country, who masquerade under the banner of communism, have merely picked up a few trifles and brandished them like flags to attack the Party’s General Line, the Great Leap Forward, and the People’s Communes. How absurd—truly “an ant trying to shake a giant tree, laughable in its self-ignorance”! Since last year, the global reactionaries have been heaping torrents of abuse upon us. In my view, this is most welcome. It would be utterly inconceivable if the great undertaking of our 650 million people were not being viciously denounced by imperialism and its lackeys in various countries. The more fiercely they revile us, the more delighted I become. Let them go on railing for another half-century; then we shall see who ultimately prevails and who is defeated. These two poems of mine can also be regarded as a reply to those scoundrels.

Mao Zedong

September 1st

Enclosed are two regulated seven-character poems:

Seven-Character Regulated Poem: Visiting Shaoshan, June 1959

On June 25, 1959, I returned to Shaoshan, thirty-two years after I had bid farewell to this place.

Faintly lingers in dreams a curse upon the passing river;
My old home lay behind me thirty-two years ago.
Red banners swirl, rousing serfs to take up halberds;
Dark hands raise high the whip of the overlord.
Because of countless sacrifices, our resolve grows mightier;
We dare to bid the sun and moon give way to a new heaven.
How joyous to behold the rice and beans in thousandfold waves!
Heroes everywhere beneath the evening mists.

Seven-Character Regulated Poem: Climbing Mount Lu; July 1, 1959

A mountain stands aloft by the mighty river’s side,
I mount its verdant heights through four hundred winding turns.
With cool eyes I gaze upon the ocean and the world beyond;
Warm winds drive rain across the rivers and skies.
Clouds stretch wide where nine waterways meet, atop the Yellow Crane;
Waves surge below, raising white smoke over the Three Wu regions.
Where has Tao Qian gone, no one can tell;
May fields still be tilled within his peach-blossom land?