Zedong Mao 
The Poems of Mao Zedong 

Mao Zedong, leader of the revolution and absolute chairman of the People’s Republic of China, was also a calligrapher and a poet of extraordinary grace and eloquent simplicity. The poems in this beautiful edition (from the 1963 Beijing edition), translated and introduced by Willis Barnstone, are expressions of decades of struggle, the painful loss of his first wife, his hope for a new China, and his ultimate victory over the Nationalist forces. Willis Barnstone’s introduction, his short biography of Mao and brief history of the revolution, and his notes on Chinese versification all combine to enrich the Western reader’s understanding of Mao’s poetry.

Tabella dei contenuti

Acknowledgments


PART I: INTRODUCTION

Mao’s Life and the Revolution

About the Poems

Notes on the Introduction


PART II: THE POEMS

Changsha

Tower of the Yellow Crane

Chingkang Mountain

Warlords

Ninth Day of the Ninth Moon

New Year’s Day

On the Road to Chian

Tingchow to Changsha

First Siege

Second Siege

Region of the Great Pines

Huichang

Loushan Pass

Three Songs

The Long March

Kunlun Mountain

Liupan the Mountain of Six Circles

Snow

Capture of Nanking

Poem for Liu Ya-tzu (1949)

Poem for Liu Ya-tzu (1950)

Peitaho

Swimming

The Gods

Saying Good-bye to the God of Disease (1)

Saying Good-bye to the God of Disease (2)

Return to Shaoshun

Climbing Lushan

Militia Women

To a Friend

Written on a Photograph of the Cave of the Gods

To Kuo Mo-jo (1961)

In Praise of the Winter Plum Blossom

Winter Clouds

To Kuo Mo-jo (1963)

Notes on the Poems


PART III: APPENDIXES

The Translation

Chinese Versification

Mao’s Calligraphy

Circa l’autore

Mao Zedong was born in Hunan Province in 1893, son of an impoverished peasant. In October 1949, he founded the People’s Republic of China, which he led until his death in 1976. Willis Barnstone is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University, the author of many books, and a noted translator.