(October 1964)
The clown has stepped down;
He should be seen off with cheers
And the booming of saluting cannons.
The atomic bomb—just say “blast,” and it blasts;
What endless joy!
Ten years of ugly history have turned to dust,
il l
A burst of thunder rolls up a mighty wind.
We laugh: Old Shu’s tide has gone for good;
The death knell is toiling.
Recalling the past,
His momentum was fierce;
All his lackeys joined in the uproar, blindly cheering.
But do you not see?
The people have always been heroes.
Chuan
Ten years of ugly history have turned to dust.
In 1953, after Stalin’s death, Khrushchev became First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1958, he also took on the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers. By 1964, he was forced to resign. The figure “ten years” is used here as an approximate round number.
[I]
“A thousand hooks” signifies extreme weight.
Sheng Tang braced himself against a carriage weighing a thousand hooks [II force],
Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly (2) — all was empty.
Look to the East:
Torches and red flags are dancing,
Ten thousand li bathed in crimson.
[2]
“Zhuang Zhou Dreams He Is a Butterfly,” from Zhuangzi’s “On the Equality of Things”:
“Once, Zhuang Zhou dreamt that he had become a butterfly, fluttering and flitting about, perfectly content and unaware that he was Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly he awoke to find himself lying there as Zhuang Zhou.” This means that Zhuang Zhou dreamed he had transformed into a butterfly, flying freely and feeling utterly at ease, without realizing he was still Zhuang Zhou. Shortly after, when he woke up, he was once again simply Zhuang Zhou.