About this work: (Published by Oxford University Press)
Wild Grass was composed in 1993. The music is based on the Foreword to the poem “Wild Grass” by the father of contemporary Chinese literature, Lu Hsun
(1881–1936), not only a great writer but also a great thinker and revolutionary. This
Foreword was written at the White Cloud Pavilion, Kwangchow, on 26 April 1927.
The following 1931 translation by Feng Yu-sheng may be recited concurrently with
the music by beginning the first line of text at the second line of music, and resuming
“A subterranean fire…” in the middle of the second page of music.
Translation of the Foreword:
When I am silent, I feel replete; as I open my mouth to speak, I am conscious of
emptiness.
The past life has died. I exult over its death, because from this I know that it once
existed. The dead life has decayed. I exult over its decay, because from this I know
that it has not been empty.
From the clay of life abandoned on the ground grow no lofty trees, only wild grass.
For that I am to blame.
Wild grass strikes no deep roots, has no beautiful flowers and leaves, yet it imbibes
dew, water, and the blood and flesh of the dead, although all try to rob it of life. As
long as it lives it is trampled upon and mown down, until it dies and decays.
But I am not worried; I am glad. I shall laugh aloud and sing.
I love my wild grass, but I detest the ground, which decks itself with wild grass.
A subterranean fire is spreading, raging, underground. Once the molten lava breaks
through the earth’s crust, it will consume all the wild grass and lofty trees, leaving
nothing to decay.
But I am not worried; I am glad. I shall laugh aloud and sing.
Heaven and earth are so serene that I cannot laugh aloud or sing. Even if they were
not so serene, I probably could not either. Between light and darkness, life and
death, past and future, I dedicate this tussock of wild grass as my pledge to friend
and foe, man and beast, those whom I love and those whom I do not love.
For my own sake and for the sake of friend and foe, man and beast, those whom I
love and those whom I do not love, I hope for the swift death and decay of this wild
grass. Otherwise, it means I have not lived, and this would be truly more lamentable
than death and decay.
Go, then, wild grass, together with my foreword!
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