The hobnailed boots of our enemies have crossed the Great Wall,
while dance and song still feign peace in the South.
“Be friends and good neighbors”, * but what a wretched capitulation
it is, to be so blind to one’s country and people!
Filled with mounting rage,
we await the day when with one angry roar
we will awaken all our unfortunate nation
to rise as one oppressed man, brandishing fists.
1935
* This is a reference to the Kuomintang’s policy of non-resistance in the face of the Japanese threat, being a slogan offered in the 1930s as a rebuttal to those who advocated Chinese armed resistance to territorial encroachment.
