A Preface to None (by Ma Huairong)

[mahuairong]

Every History Is a Present-day History.

So of Verses and Dances in This Poetry,

the Present Tense Does Find Its Use,

Wherever Things Actually Take Place.



I have been silenced and now I am breaking.

Since I am compelled

by the passions and desires of speaking,

to pronounce, I feel my waist wide enough,

breasts broad enough,

hairs high enough in the air.

While, when I realize I am really uttering,

somehow I get a bit embarrassed.



Is what trippingly on my tongue worthy of

what is brewing and worming in my brain

from a youngster to a middle-aged man?

Life is but a process of events added up together,

just as threads interweave with each other,

thus composes the scenes and acts of a drama.

So many minutes，hours and days accumulate a year.

As do kings and queens in the chronicles of an encyclopedia.



But thinking has its own habit of mind.

With time and tide passing by

even a crooked-pared goat gains in depth rather than age.

He might have got indifferent

towards what use it is to bleat

or disappointed at what value for others to speak.

Yes, it is not necessary for every being

to engage in that philosophic meditation.



But constantly it haunts the brains of the rare

who think of themselves as

the conscience of the society they are besieged in.

As a timid human being I am,

Timid as a country boy with a lamb,

I dare not peep into the depths of an obsolete farm well,

or dread catching a long-horned grasshopper

playing and performing on the highest corn stalk.



Yet bitter peace has tempered me from nurture to nature.

by intuition and more through revelation,

I perceive China a land enriched by cotton

at the same time heavily burdened by stone.

If there is something that puzzles you, worry not.

Such as scholars vying to be government officials,

Or for nothing the farmhands deserting farmlands,

Or for anything the machine-man dejecting machines;



If computers are caught busy on line sharing at office desk,

or public fund spending in extravagant birthday banquet,

Don’t hurry to trouble yourself into a loss,

Just call it the Chinese Characteristics.

This peculiarity authorizes the ambitious

to hop, step and jump joyfully under the name

of economic reformation and social transformation.



Rich is China in historical records and documents.

Even an aged village scholar can provide a list,

On which Confucius and his disciples are listed.

the great minds hide between their lines and pages

wisdom and deep insight for later ages to discover.

They stand on the higher peaks of their times.

Certainly they foretell their misty future,

which is definitely our now and here.



Many recounts about China do exist,

If there be, or ever were, one deep into the reality,

this chant is certainly among the best ones to choose,

relying on personal experiences rather than others.

Official statistics are almost equal to lies,

before a newspaper I prefer to shut my eyes.

A donkey who mills from day to day

Knows not what kind of grains he grinds.



Hence seeking truth from facts is not bad for bread.

But why do we do it this way but say it as another?

Actually we have in Southern China not any tiger.

A myth in the east is indeed China,

ancient, large, populous, uneven and backward

If you are convenient to travel this mysteriousness,

You won’t be stupider to have a notebook,

on which delicious dishes and scenic spots are kept.

I must say that that is not China,

at least a far cry from that real China.

To eat China is one thing.

To know China is another.

Careless of the human rights of one’s members,

and heedless of the welfares of some others,

thus a fertilized soil made for cultivating apathetic citizens

under lords, tyrants, all oppressors of feudal system.



The Chinese are pre-matured in art and wisdom

But lag behind in the awakening of reasons.

Deft in craftsmanship and mental strategy

as may be seen in architecture or on chessboard.

Every invention is made for the imperial

Every intention is contrived for the imperial.

Every temple has a god and

Every village head is like a local emperor.



In thatches and cottages of the mountain villages,

the villagers talk and act as imperial courtiers.

By birth they are experts in social relations.

Even a man with mental deficiency knows very well

how to address strangers on his own family tree.

A lass has to master before her marriage

the ritual formulas pop among the circles of ladies,

who rarely know ABC but resilient in productivities.



A good government in its endeavor

changes the existing habits and customs

towards a healthier direction

and for a better circulation.

while the bad ones unfit for their missions

are sure to cause troubles and upheavals.

Or in their administration are imbedded

the evil seeds gradually though not purposely.



Once the hidden dangers begin to sprout,

the consequences are not easy to count

probably they shall do harms

no less than floods in the Yellow

or earthquakes in southwest China.

we have heard just in that more civilized Shanghai

a murder and a murder case of police killing

and in Guizhou the burning down of court and building.

Rome is not built in a day.

Icebergs form not through a single winter night.

It is free for the upper to do everything at will

While the lower have opinions nowhere to air.

The deputies of the plutocracy have gone so far that

the populace feel it difficult to further bear.

Such flames of anger are put out here and there.

Nightmares are contagious and sure to turn true somewhere.



Here for you is another positive example.

In China while MaoTse-tung in power,

Old filth and mire are thoroughly wiped out.

Venereal diseases and the smuggling of drugs disappear

completely on the Communist-ruled mainland.

In those years, we have, or we can remember

only two laws to regulate the communities and activities,

just as a dog at the door and a parrot on the gate.



One is the Constitution Law,

the other the Marriage Law.

The public atmosphere is so pure and simple

Concepts of crime and laws-profiting not yet awakened

Around the citizens and among the country people,

All relations are normal amid man and man

between woman and woman

still within woman and man.



The central authorities of New China aim at

keeping social movements within bounds

through public opinion of the laboring classes,

which Mao calls the people’s democratic dictatorship.

In the years before the Great Cultural Revolution,

things go smoothly in cities as well as rural areas.

It sounds like a harmonious society.

Safety is assured for wealth as well as for poverty.



During the days from 1960’s to 1970’s

as the People’s Communes are under way,

in my home town of Shandong peninsular,

the farmers, though poor, male and female,

all live in mirth, peace and stability.

For instance, a country woman caught in a rainstorm

is rescued by commune members in nearby village.

Woman cadre offering food and puts her up for the night.

If militiamen on nocturnal patrol happen to find a lady fled,

they bicycle her home and criticize the husband.

Compared with the circumstances nowadays,

what a world of difference we shall see!

Murders and rapes frequent in campus

But there is seldom on bulletin board a warning notice.

If the conclusion is difficult for the court to jump to,

The best saying is so called to be committed suicide.



In the streams of market economy

Everybody is Caesar to rise from his ambition.

Just as floods run torrentially down a mountain slope,

Fish jumping, tortoise flying and make the lakes swelling.

Before opening-up, iron hoop tightly on each head,

not a single man or woman in my tribe,

dare to tread on the margins of the law.

But now cases may occur in every street and corner.



Corn bread is replaced by sandwiches.

A sister becomes richer while a brother remains meaner.

A better family future holds up a mirror in nature,

whereas kin bloodsheds emerge one after another.

The mark of human evolution is not something

measured with the amount of cash.

Naturally, not at all wealth

means social harmony and humane progress.



Up to now I have not been able to restore

in my bosom the mental harmony of

that inferior historical stage half a century ago.

To be candid,

Not am I bribed by the past and the present

to the neglect of the previous.

In this point yesterday has taught us a lot.



We live our own times.

We shall exchange no seats with other generations.

Not understanding the why and the how

The history books are left with gaps and blanks.

the middle or college students know more about

the Grand Emperor of the Qin Dynasty or of

the Tang Dynasty than they do of MaoTse-tung,

the founder and father of the People’s Republic of China.



They would rather date back that reminiscence as far distant

and replace in vain that remembrance whimsically fancied

for the sweet silent thoughts

that barely exist in their ancestors’ memories’ panorama.

Hence I hold that a good historian should

first of all, be fair, just and bold,

Jot down clearly and judge correctly the truth of history.

Here before your eyes is an example of fine examples.


(From Qingdao University, China)
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You see me, you lose me

[mahuairong]

i am open to criticism and opinions from dear friends. thanks
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You see me, you lose me

[hepingdao]

i have read the first part,
a wonderful part with smooth wording and deep thinking,
everything seemingly put into the right order,

thanks for sharing

i will come back to read more and more carefully

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为网友服务: 端茶倒水勤打扫!

[mahuairong]

dear Hepingdao, thanks for all your praises! this is for me just a try.
i just began to write poems about one week ago. Look forward to your
instructions.
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You see me, you lose me

[hepingdao]

nice shoot just for one week
welcome aboard then
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为网友服务: 端茶倒水勤打扫!

[William Zhou周道模]

the earth is smaller and smaller,better shorter.
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诗歌是灵魂的歌唱.
周道模