The Dead Soldier’s Talk

Fotografia de Kirill Sharkovski

In October 1969, in a shipwreck

accident on the Tumen River, a young

Chinese soldier was drowned

saving a plaster statue of Chairman Mao.

He was awarded Merit Citation 2, and

was buried at a mountain foot in Hunchun

County, Jilin.

I’m tired of lying here.
The mountain and the river are not bad.
Sometimes a bear, a boar, or a deer
               comes to this place
As if we are a group of outcast comrades.
I feel lonely and I miss home.
It is very cold when winter comes.

I saw you coming just now
Like a little cloud wandering over grassland.
I knew it must have been you,
For no other had come for six years.

Why have you brought me wine and meat
               and paper-money again?
I have told you year after year
That I am not superstitious.
Have you the red treasure book with you?

I have forgotten some quotations.
You know I don’t have a good memory.
Again, you left it home.

How about the statue I saved?
Is it still in the museum?
Is our Great Leader in good health?
I wish He live ten thousand years!

Last week I dreamed of our mother
Showing my medal to a visitor.
She was still proud of her son
And kept her head up
While going to the fields.
She looked older than last year
And her grey hair troubled my eyes.
I did not see our little sister.
She must be a big girl now.
Has she got a boy friend?

Why are you crying?
Say something to me.
Do you think I cannot hear you?
In the early years
You came and stood before my tomb
Swearing to follow me as a model.
In recent years
You poured tears every time.

Damn you, why don’t you open your mouth?
Something must have happened.
What? Why don’t you tell me?

Ha Jin