Ah Motherland, Dear Motherland

祖国啊,我亲爱的祖国

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Shu Ting


我是你河边上破旧的⽼老老⽔
水⻋车, 数百年年来纺着疲
惫的歌;
我是你额上熏⿊黑的矿灯,
照你在历史的隧洞洞⾥里里蜗⾏行行摸索
我是⼲干瘪的稻穗,是失修的路路
基; 是淤滩上的驳船
把纤绳深深
勒勒进你的肩膊,
——祖国啊!
·
我是贫困,
我是悲哀。
我是你祖祖辈辈
痛苦的希望啊, 
是“⻜飞天”袖间
千百年年未落到地⾯面的花朵,
——祖国啊!
·
我是你簇新的理理想,
刚从神话的蛛⽹网⾥里里挣
脱; 我是你雪被下古莲的胚
芽; 我是你挂着眼泪的笑涡
;我是新刷出的雪⽩白的起跑线
; 是绯红的黎明
正在喷薄;
—— 祖国啊!
·
我是你的⼗十亿分之⼀一,
是你九百六⼗十万平⽅方的总
和; 你以伤痕累累的乳房
喂养了了
迷惘的我、深思的我、 沸腾的我; 
那就从我的⾎血⾁肉之躯上
去取得
你的富饶、你的荣光、你的⾃自由;
—— 祖国啊, 
我亲爱的祖国!

Ah Motherland, Dear Motherland

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Anne Chen


I am your battered waterwheel, 
Weaving an ancient weary chime.
I am a smoke-tinted miner’s lamp,
Lighting your drag through the tale of time.

I am a rice sprout wrinkled and toasted, 
lost in oblivious lanes.
I am an untamed boat by the coast, 
lashing your shoulders with chains.
…Ah Motherland!

I am poverty 
I am grief
I am the ache within your hope 
your posterity yet ancestry.
I am born in utopian land,
where million-year-old petals 
refuse to drop from trees.
…Ah Motherland!

I am your ideals fresh and wild,
Rescued from cobwebs you have fabled.
I am the lotus rooted beneath snow, 
Melting to tears in smiling dimples.

I am a white starting line 
freshly traced
against scarlet dawn, 
beaming gold rays.
…Ah Motherland!

I am a bit of your billion,
summing acres beneath your feet.
Your eroded and beaten breasts have nurtured
a confounded boiling me.
Please take my name and blood to fuel 
your prosperity and liberty.

Oh Motherland… 
Dear Motherland!