The writer of these verses is exactly a nerd.
In Chinese manner he writes English work.
If you do not like their exotic flavor,

Kick his arse hard and make a smirk.

           逃　亡

   The Escape（II）

Lao Ta, who lived on East Street,          

        was a ‘bad lord’;

He was buried with his sons

        in a big hole.

Lao Erh, who lived on West Street,

        was a ‘good lord’;

He was sunk with his wife

        in a deep pool.

Lao Chang, who dwelled at South Low,

        was an ‘American spy’;

He and his parents, and his brothers

        were beaten into flesh pies.

Lao Lee, who dwelled at North Loft,

        was a ‘Nationalist spy’;

All his family members’ heads

        were hacked off, and hung up high!

Soon the ‘secondary lords’   

        were also immolated,

Then the ‘assistant spies’

        too were eliminated.

Finally bushes and shrubs,

        conspicuously exposed.

Because there was no tree

        left in the territory.

Bushes and shrubs                          

         should also get away.

Wormwoods and pigweeds

         would be the next aims.

If there were no tree, no bush,

         no wormwood, no pigweed.

“Try to find a taller grass

         to fill the vacancy!”

At first,

        they treated me rather well,

Often greeted me

        and talked about the weather.

Often I was ‘invited’

        to ‘chat’ about some neighbors.

I was called ‘comrade’,

        could be ‘free’ to go somewhere.

Gradually they showed to me

        their true natures and real faces.    

Our talks and walks

        were no longer as intimate.

Soon I also lost

        all kinds of my freedom,

Because now -- I was

        the number one enemy.

Anything I must do,

        I must first report.       

If I hoed in the east field,

        east field someone came to hoe.

If I wanted to visit my relatives?

        “Why bother?” “What for!”

If I wanted to go to the market,

        “Somebody will go with you!”

Most frightening of all

        were midnight door poundings.

They were surprise investigations

        to see if we shelter any bad element.

Rifles and spears pointed at us,

        cadres and militias surrounded us;

There was no surprise at all,

        they’d investigate us time and again.

First, there were ‘examinations’,      

        then there were ‘counteractions’.

Once more to ‘cleanse the class’,

        once again to ‘correct the operations’.

More and more I was mentioned,

       then was also criticized again and again.

At last I too was swept out of my home

        in which we had lived for generations.

Those clothes they allotted us,

        could not resist the wind.

That hut they assigned us,

        could not keep out the rain.

They gave us only a few bowls and pans,

        which were half leaky, half broken.

They gave us merely some yam and grain,

        which were half bran, and half frozen.

*      IV      *

If you intend to ask, my friends,

        why they finally chained my hand.

The chief reason was my father

        who left me a few acres of farmland.

Industrious as we were,

         so we had enough to eat and wear.

Educated for some years,

         so I could know what’s ‘here’ and ‘there’.

Minding only my farm work,

        I kept my desire ever low.

Watching all my behavior,

        I conformed my deed to every law.

Endeavoring to be sociable,

        I talked soft and walked slow.

Never offended anyone,

        made no man to be my foe.

My wife was also bred up

        from a common farm life.  

When our new nation was born,

        we both were forty five.

She was illiterate and ignorant,

        an ordinary old country woman;

Yet was guilty as I was,

        must be punished likewise.

She was weak and conceived late,

         so we had only one son.

That year when we were liberated,

         he was only fifteen.

What guilt could be for a child,

        naive and innocent?         

Yet he too could not avoid

        those shackles and chains.

Now, my family, old and young,

        moved to our new home.

First we swept cobwebs and filth,

        mended the leaks in the roof;

Then we fixed the windows and door,

        stuffed the wall crevices and holes.

Simply and temporarily we settled,

        to wait our possible, eventual doom.

We got up early, went out all day,

        plowed the field as mules.

Came back late, all night lay awake,

        listened to the moans of ghosts.

Hungry, we swallowed some bran,

        not even flavored with salt.

Cold, we wrapped some sackcloth

        over our ragged clothes.

We no longer could attend meetings

        to criticize ourselves and each other.

We no longer could attend readings  

       to study doctrine books and papers.

But still we had to endeavor,

        to redeem our ‘misdemeanor’ and ‘misbehavior’.
Always we must scurry forward,

        to become ‘faithful followers’, maybe ‘favorite members’.

We sang with them the song of

        ‘The Sun, so Warm and Bright.’

We lauded with them the love of

        ‘The Savior, so Merciful and Mild.’

Sincerely and repeatedly we thanked,

        ‘The Party’s grace, so deep and wide.’

“Long live the Party! Long live the Chairman!”

        Loudly and loyally we chanted, or cried.

To be continued