Red Classic Children's Poetry

Ai Qing

If I were a bird,

I too should sing with a hoarse throat:

This storm-battered land,

The river that forever rages with our grief,

The enraging winds that blow ceaselessly,

And the forests from which the Incredibly gentle dawn ......

-and then I died,

and even my feathers rotted inside the land.

Why do I often have tears in my eyes?

Because I love this land so much ......

--Written on November 17, 1938