Saying Goodbye to the God of Disease
Mauve waters and GREen mountains are nothing
When the GREat ancient doctor Hua Tuo
Could not defeat a tiny worm.
A thousand villages collapsed, were choked with weeds,
Men were lost arrows, ghosts sang
In the doorway of a few desolate houses.
Yet now in a day, we leap around the earth,
Or explore a thousand milky ways.
And if the cowherd who lives on a star
Asks about the God of plagues,
Tell him,, happy or sad, "The God is gone,
Washed away in the waters."
A poem by Mao Tsetong read by Willis Barnstone, Professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University in Bloomington. He talked with us from WFIU.
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拉拉 答复
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‘送瘟神’七律二首之一，作于1958.07.01：
读六月三十日《人民日报》，余江县消灭了血吸虫。浮想联翩，夜不能寐。微风拂晓，旭日临窗，遥望南天，欣然命笔。
绿水青山枉自多，华佗无奈小虫何！
千村薜荔人遗矢，万户萧疏鬼唱歌。
坐地日行八万里，巡天遥看一千河。
牛郎欲问瘟神事，一样悲欢逐逝波。
春风杨柳万千条，六亿神州尽舜尧。
红雨随心翻作浪，青山着意化为桥。
天连五岭银锄落，地动三河铁臂摇。
借问瘟君欲何往，纸船明烛照天烧。
千村薜荔(bìlì必利)人遗矢〕薜荔，野生常绿藤本植物。千村薜荔，形容很多村落荒凉。矢，同屎。“人遗矢”，借用《史记·廉颇蔺相如列传》所记战国时赵国名将廉颇的故事。廉颇被废，虽老仍健，赵王想再起用他，但派去的使臣却捏造说他一会儿就拉了三次屎(“顷之，三遗矢矣”)。这里指血吸虫病流行地区病人下泻不止，濒于死亡。
