A Reflection On the Cultural Revolution

The hour has struck, the day has come, 
A tide of events gaining momentum.
The start of a turbulent age,
A decade of misery, of hatred, of rage.
Now is the lull before the storm,
Before everything goes terribly wrong,
Before humanity is extorted to its most mutated form,
Before it wrench from the human soul the saddest song.
Now is the only precious, sane moment,
Before we witness unthinkable cruelty,
Before souls are consumed in ideological ferment,
Before hearts drown in the fanatic red ferocity.
What can we do for these lost, burning souls,
Except weep for them in grief, in woe?
But even as our tears stream, as they silently flow,
A new hope is born amidst the chaos and the sorrow.
Like all things in life, the pain has ceased to last.
Like all things in life, it is now a relic of the past.
Though there are fundamental flaws,
Though we remain trapped within the dictator's claws,
We have faith in China's new order,
And love for the vast land north of our border,
For a nation must endure tremendous pain,
Before it tastes the fruit of final triumph and joy
Just as to see the rainbow you must first face the falling rain.
And we shall taste this sweetness before long,
In this nation to which we belong.

Copyright © Christy Chiang | Year Posted 2008

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