Ah, my friend!
The Yellow River, with its heroic vigor,
appears in the wilderness of Asia;
it shows the spirit of our nation:
great and strong!
Here, toward the Yellow River, we sing our hymn.
I stand on the top of a high mountain, looking at the Yellow River rolling and running to the southeast.
The golden waves surged, lifting up ten thousand furious waves;
The turbid streams turned around, forming a nine-quadrant chain;
From under the Kunlun Mountains, it ran to the side of the Yellow Sea,
splitting the land of the Central Plains into the north and the south.
Ah! The Yellow River!
You are the cradle of our nation!
Five thousand years of ancient culture originated from you;
How many stories of heroes were played by your side!
Ah! Yellow River!
You are great and strong, like a giant appearing above the plains of Asia,
You build the barrier of our nation with that heroic body.
Ah! Yellow River!
You cascade down a thousand feet, vast, deep into the north and south sides of the ten million arms of iron.
The great spirit of our nation,
will be nurtured and nourished by you!
The heroic sons and daughters of our motherland,
will have to learn from your example,
as great and strong as you are!
Great and strong like you!
Throughout the ages,
The Yellow River, with its majestic momentum,
runs across the Chinese land,
nourishing generations of Chinese children.
Singing the praises of the Yellow River is singing the praises of our great Chinese nation.
The Yellow River Cantata is a group of poems written by the famous poet Guang Weiran (Zhang Guangnian) to accompany the large-scale national symphony composed by the musician Xian Xinghai.
In 1938, after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the iron hooves of the Japanese invaders trampled on the land of North China.
The national anti-Japanese salvation movement was at its height.
Reflecting the reality of the struggle through the artistic images they created,
and inspiring the anti-Japanese enthusiasm of the whole nation,
was the wish of many progressive writers and artists.
The poet Guang Weiran wrote the lyrics to the song "May Flowers" in August 1935,
which reads:
"May flowers bloom all over the field,/the flowers cover the blood of the volunteers. / In order to save this dying nation, / They had tenaciously resisted without rest. ......"
The lyrics were composed and widely sung.
After arriving in Yan'an in 1939, the poet composed an even larger poem, the Yellow River Cantata.
The Yellow River Cantata*** has eight movements,
which are:
The Yellow River Boatmen's Song
Ode to the Yellow River
The Yellow River's Water from Heaven
The Yellow River Counterpoint
The Ballad of the Yellow River
The Yellow River Grievance
The Defense of the Yellow River
"Roar, Yellow River".
The poem's majestic imagery is intertwined with real-life pictures,
composing a magnificent historical scroll