Lost poetry of political fantasy, 1969 / red futures / "To the Brave Fighters of the Third World War"
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“The American lily has bloomed — and withered — two years since you were laid in the ground / Tomorrow — when the sun rises — I will return to my beloved Motherland / But you cannot — parted from me by the vast Atlantic — in the cemetery of a foreign land” — Anonymous, "To the Brave Fighters of the Third World War," 1969.
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"To the Brave Fighters of the Third World War" began to circulate in Beijing in the fall of 1969. It soon spread to the rest of the country.1
Some of the Red Guard poetry made it into semi-official journals, but this poem did not. Although there has been speculation, the author is unknown, and the existence of multiple versions would make it difficult to confirm one way or another.
The poem is a political fantasy. It imagines the final showdown between the exploited and the exploiter, between the forces of communist liberation and imperialist slavery, between good and evil… The revisionists in the Kremlin will be smashed. The White House will fall. It imagines the Red Guards spreading around the world.
But they were spreading. This is true. Kang Sheng to spread Chinese communism all the way to Australia, through Burma.2 So, Red Guards were dying in foreign wars. The Red Guards were being taken across the border to fight alongside the Communist Party of Burma. Many that went were those that ran afoul of factional warfare.
This poem’s speculation builds out from Burma and the narratives about that cause and others in the borderlands.3
Chinese communism looked outward in the 1960s. The writer took up that spirit. He believes in the international communist movement. He is not provincial. We can see that from the geographic references.4
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There are many versions of the poem, of which it’s easy to access four or five. I will cobble together the parts that I like.5
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To the brave fighters of the Third World War6
» » » Take off your dusty cap — lift the pure white wreath — gently / Gently — I step forward, toward your grave / With my soul bared — I give you my memories
» » » The American lily has bloomed — and withered — two years since you were laid in the ground / Tomorrow — when the sun rises — I will return to my beloved Motherland / But you cannot — parted from me by the vast Atlantic — in the cemetery of a foreign land
» » » I will never again hear that voice I came to know so well / I will never see your warm smile / I will never forget your upright stride / I will never forget those burning eyes / Tears roll down my cheeks — as the waves of memory carry me back / So far…
» » » In the park, the guerrilla drills / At Jinggangshan, the big link-up7 / The radio by our side — listening to each word of the announcement — from the Ministry of Defense declaring war / That unforgettable night — the desire for combat — shot through every nerve — burning in every capillary
» » » In this Third World War to defeat the system of exploitation — we were thrown together / Where did our friendship begin? / There is no way to say for sure / All I know is — it was taller than the mountains — longer than the road
» » » In the trenches — we split a heel of bread — choked down some pickles — hummed the same melody — slept on the same blanket / Word by word / Line by line / We studied the true message — the thought of our leader / Together, we quoted to each other — over and over again
» » » Under the red flag — filled with loyalty to the Party — we were willing to sacrifice our lives / We held our rifles aloft — shouting an oath as strong as iron and steel : “This is our greatest wish — to sacrifice all that we can” / In the blazing fire — we stood shoulder to shoulder — charging the enemy line / blasting the capitalists — with bullets of proletarian vengeance
» » » Do you still remember? / We rested on the banks of the Don — rode across the plains of Ukraine — crested the Urals / The red star of the Kremlin — finally burned bright again
» » » We walked in the footsteps of the Paris Commune — tracing our way through the city — to the tune of the "Internationale" / We raced through Europa’s every — city, village, and harbor / The lakes of Switzerland — the spire of Pisa — sunsets in Yemen — the temples of Phnom Penh — the cherry blossoms of Mount Fuji — the fine tobacco of Havana — the red wine of Spain — the crystal waters of Black Africa — — all of this! / We never tarried / For to us — there was only the rifle — and weighty responsibility
» » » How many sleepless nights did we endure? / How many bloody battles did we fight? / This is how — our invincible brigade — guided by the red sun — kept marching on
» » » Listen! / The echo of our call comes back to us from our brothers in every corner of the world / They converge into a mighty torrent that will sweep across the globe / Look! / Men who were slaves are flying the banner of righteousness / A single spark starts a prairie fire / Ah! / Only the White House remains in the flood of red
» » » Three flares light up the night sky / You patted my shoulder / "Hey, comrade, do you remember — 'When America and China meet on the battlefield — we will see the red hearts of the young people!' / It must have been twenty years ago that he said it”8
» » » Never forget — this is the final struggle — the battle that will decide the fate of the human race / A blast of the bugle / Our red hearts are joined — as we march forward
» » » Charge! / To the very highest floors! / Take the commanding heights!
» » » It was at that moment — you jumped onto me — with friendship and your own life — blocking the volley of bullets that came from the corner / Criminal bullets / Your body collapsed heavily to the ground — onto the magnificent floor of the White House — staining it with your dark red blood / Your lips moved but no sound came out — seeming to command me: — "Forward! Forward!"
» » » I held you in my arms — feeling your pain seep into me / The world around me — disappeared / Time — stopped / Hatred surged in my heart / Thunder and lightning crashed around me
» » » The lofty mountains are silent / The oceans are sobbing / The autumn leaves drift to the ground / The September clouds shed tears / My beloved friend! / Why? / In our time of victory — you are already so far away / Never to return to my side
» » » The flames of war have gone out / The smell of blackpowder has been blown away / The sun! — has never felt so warm / The sky! — has never been so blue / The smiles of children — have never seemed so sweet
» » » Mao Zedong's guidance — Ilyich's teachings — Marx's predictions — will be realized in our generation.
» » » Rest well! — my dear friend / I know what it is that you wished to accomplish / The glorious post-war rebuilding — will be our task / The fortress of communism — will be built by us / Be at peace!
» » » The clouds have gathered — marking out a dirge / The mountains gather — to offer garlands / Their flowers tell the world: — a martyr rests here / We embrace a final time / We smile together one more time / Farewell! / My dear friend — the task we took up together — calls to me again
» » » I have a long journey ahead / I am anxious to return / Tomorrow — when the sun rises — we will go back to our native land / The rivers and the ocean / rise to meet the sky / Our hearts contain — a myriad of passions
» » » I give solemn testimony to the Motherland: — Mother! — your brave son — for the good of mankind — guided by the certainty of history — rests in the ground on the other side of the Atlantic — in the cemetery of a foreign land
The dates and other details are from Underground Literature of the Cultural Revolution 文化大革命中的地下文学
This is covered briefly in a previous entry. The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) by Bertil Lintner covers this history, and his The Wa of Myanmar and China’s Quest for Global Dominance deals more directly with Kang Sheng’s plans for a Chinese-directed international communist movement.
Here, a lengthy excerpt from Underground Literature of the Cultural Revolution:
The story of a fellow revolutionary comrade sacrificing his life in Vietnam was spread around Red Guard circles in Beijing in 1968. One of the key details of the legend was a bloody armband being placed on the martyr's grave. This story fascinated the Red Guards. There were also stories about the Red Guards from Beijing and Kunming that crossed into Burma to fight with the Communist Party of Burma.
It is unknown whether those Red Guards that joined the international communist movement produced any literary work. According to Chen Jianjun, who worked as a nurse in the Yunnan Military Region before going to Sun Yat-sent University, many of the wounded that came across the border from Burma between 1968 and 1972 were Red Guards. The propaganda performance troupe that the Communist Party of Burma sent consisted mostly of Red Guards, too. At the time, one of the nurses said, "Hey, I think the guy leading the team is XX from Kunming No. X Middle School!" The songs all came from the Cultural Revolution: "The Fighters of Regiment X Think Fondly of the Chairman," "On Beijing's Golden Hill," "Flying Geese," and "Gazing Up at the Big Dipper." The lyrics were slightly modified, however, so perhaps this should count as a literary creation.
"Gazing Up at the Big Dipper" came from a song and dance drama called The Road to Jinggangshan, one of the favorites of the Red Guards between 1966 and 1968. There was a line in the song that went, "From the muddy banks of the Gan, you led us out of the encirclement / Ten thousand of Chiang's bandits fell before us..." The team in Yunnan sang it differently: "From the muddy banks of the Irrawaddy, you delivered us from siege / Ten thousand of Ne Win's men fell before us!"
After the Revolutionary Committee of Yunnan Province was established in 1968, Jiang Qing and Lin Biao ordered a rectification campaign. A number of veteran cadres and Red Guards were judged to have supported the wrong faction. This extended to Red Guards at middle schools in Kunming. Factional warfare broke out, confessions were extracted, and there were posters pasted up announcing impending executions. This is the reason that the CPB welcomed so many young people from China that had been declared reactionary elements. They carried with them a stain that could not be washed away. Many of the Red Guards that died in guerrilla warfare in Burma left no record of their real name or hometown. Even in cases where the family of the deceased was informed that their offspring had been killed in action, the government did not offer the customary support extended to families of martyrs.
Chen Jianjun described to his friends at Sun Yat-sen University how some of the Red Guards discharged from the hospital chose to return to Burma. They said farewell to the nurses with tears in their eyes. Some of them begged the nurses in Kunming to tell their family that they had seen them alive.
It is impossible to say to what extent these events and legends influenced the creation of "To the Brave Fighters of the Third World War," but the connections are obvious.
The writer was almost certainly a Red Guard. He was also probably from Beijing, which is where the poem first circulated. That means he was probably from a somewhat elite background. There is speculation that Zang Pingfan 臧平分 is the original author, which, again, can’t be confirmed, but he fits as a model. Born and raised in Beijing, he went to one of the middle schools that became a base for Red Guard activity. He later joined the military but was involved in some political conflict in the 1970s that saw him demobilized and sent to work for the Beijing subway. When the college entrance examination was reinstated, he went to the Beijing Economics Institute and became a business reporter.
My version is close to the one in Anthology of Sent-down Youth Diaries 知青日记选编, which is close to the incomplete version in Underground Literature of the Cultural Revolution (this one is also used in Studies of Poetry of the Cultural Revolution Era 文化大革命时期诗歌研究). The version online at Taihang Summit 太行英雄 includes a few unique lines: "Who wrote 'To the Brave Fighters of the Third World War'?" 红卫兵名诗《献给第三次世界大战的勇士》作者是谁? Another version posted in many places online is far from complete and seems to elide some of the political language.
I will depart from the formatting of the original, which is not consistent across the versions available. I would like to be creative. Maybe I would like to have it read as something closer to prose. I am not sure if it works. This is an experiment. I don’t write poetry, so I don’t translate poetry.
Revolutionary networking 串联 was key to the Red Guard experience. Red Guards traveled around the country to hold link-up rallies. Some of these were held at places with revolutionary history, like Jinggangshan in Jiangxi, which is where the Red Army was formed after the failed Autumn Harvest Uprising in 1927.
This is a line attributed to Chen Yi 陈毅 that was supposedly popular at the time.