“Snow” (extract) 

 
poet:          Mao Tse Tung; translated by Jock Hoe
 
 

North country scene:

A thousand miles locked in ice,
Ten thousand miles of whirling snow.
                  In an out the Great Wall,
                  Only one great vastness;
                  Up and down the Yellow River,
                  Torrents stopped and stilled.
Hills dance like silver serpents,
Plateaux race like wax-coloured elephants,
Trying to vie with God in their height.
                  A clear day is needed
                  To view this whiteness decked in red
                  In all its incomparable beauty.
 
___________________________________________
 
Australian Blue
 
 
Centre country scene:
 
A thousand miles of desert,
Ten thousand miles of shimmering heat.
    In and out the Dead Heart,
    Only one great vastness;
    Up and down the Diamantina,
    Sand torrents stopped and stilled.
Hills dance like rainbow serpents,
Mirages race like shadowed giants,
Trying to vie with the sun in their reach.
    A wild eye is needed
    To view this wilderness decked with blue
    In all its unforgiving beauty.
 
 
Thor May (cheerfully ripping off Mao Zedong, “Snow”)
                  April 2008