逃　亡

   The Escape （VI）

       *      XI      *

The anti-America and support-Korea

        warfare then was too tired.

In the rear, guns gradually stopped;

        at the front, men finally retired.

“What shall we do,

        now there is no war to fight?”

“Why not fight among ourselves:

        to fight this, to fight that? ”

Thus, again and again,

        I was accused and liquidated.

It was more and more,

        debts should be paid with interests.

A hundred times I was insulted,

        a thousand times, lacerated.

I’d rather kill myself --

        go to the deepest hell!

Only I thought that

        my son’s whereabouts were yet unknown.

He had no one to rely upon;

        he alone could not keep up a life.

If his letter came,

        who would answer him and let me know?

If he later came home,

        who could help him marry a wife?

Only I thought that

        I was not willing to die.

How can I pacify

        all my fury and hate?

 Keeping my body existing,

        someday I can revive.

Keeping my eyes open,

        I can see the last play.

Close behind it came

       the nation’s Great Leap Forward.

Held high and led ahead

        now were three bloody banners. 

If you could not leap,

        “Crawl! You lazy laggard!”

The more we leaped, or crawled,

        the more we were battered.

They summoned and drove us   

        all out to manufacture steel.

Home utensils were collected,

        village trees were cut down.

Glorious was the furnace fire:

        blackly, blazingly, sizzled the sky.

Miserable was the ferrous rubbish:

        dribbling, drifting, upon the ground.

People’s communes were prisons,

        denied people’s natures and rights.

Together we lived, we ate,

        collectively we worked and died.

Dripping with sweat by day,

        wives must also transplant rice.

Raising lanterns by night,

        husbands must also reap rye.

Both the men and mules were tired,

        all our saps were drained.

Both the gods and ghosts were angry,

        to Heaven and Earth they complained.  

Men were tired, would collapse,

        never could they get up again.

When Heaven was angry, He’d give

        only plagues and pains.

Often famines would happen

        with calamities of human,

But not as this time

        they were so drastic and vast.

Here, it was immense flood;

        there, it was severe drought.

Everywhere upon our fatherland

        famines fastened and lasted.

At our river-side we suffered also,

        first drought then locusts.

So empty were the country and space,

        so bare were the sun and land.

We two, husband and wife,

        had little food but more torment.

So thin and feeble we became,

        barely could hold our flimsy life line.

*      XII      *

Suddenly, good tidings came!

        Many people secretly talked:

“In the south, there is rising,

        a movement of escape. Now!”

It seemed the Party did not prohibit it.

        “They look at it with eyes half closed.”

“What’s the reason?” people also asked,

        but no one could surely know.

“First go to Canton, Guangdong,

        further go southward.

Come to the English colony,

        stealthily cross the border.

Then is the rich city, Hong Kong,

        a free port of the free world.”

Richness!? Oh – freedom?!

        What adorable words, desirous world!

Some more whispers late at a night,

       it was determined and agreed.

Next morning we were on the road

        more than ten miles away.

We had never left our village

        to go so far off, so early.

Looking back at our back hill, 

       it was misty and gray.

My wife could not help let

        her tears stream to her coat.

How could I help let

        my tears spatter on my shoes.

We knelt down to the ground,

        wept painfully and kowtowed.

“On which day can we come back

        to our village, to our home?”

We got up and hastily found

        a covering place to hide;

Otherwise, we might be sighted,

        be caught, taken back and tried.

Then at day time we rested

        and only walked by night.

Day and night we fled

        toward the direction of light.

Hiding in the day, we feared even   

        the grass stir, leaf fall.

Walking by night, we feared most

        the dog bark, wolf howl.

Hungry, we ate wild vegetables

        which were bitter and small.

Thirsty, we drank river water

        which was filthy and foul.

Soon we felt it was unpractical,

        in such a manner to run away.

We must be brave enough

        to flee openly in the day.

Yet it could not be achieved

        without some vehicles’ aid.

There wouldn’t be much time,

        and the goal was faraway.

We tried to pass some checkpoints,

        no one would block our way.

We tried to sleep under someone’s gate,

        no one would drive us away.

We begged to board some ferryboats,

        they would not ask us to pay.

We stealthily climbed into railway trains,

        to hide and ride among the freight.

Even if sometimes, someone

        would stop us and question us,

Soon he would shake his head

        and gesture to let us go.

Though they might incur

        trouble to themselves,

Many would help us with food

        and point out the right road.

Everywhere civilization was crippled,  

        and oppression was cruel.

Everywhere people were perishing,

        or suffering in hunger and woe.

Who did not hate the despotism,     

        and abhor the new rules?

Who did not hope to overthrow them,

        or, want to break loose?

To be continued