The Song of the River
You hear it all along the river.
You hear it, loud and strong,
from the rowers as they urge the junk with its high stern,
the mast lashed alongside, down the swift running stream.
You hear it from the trackers, a more breathless chant,
as they pull desperately against the current,
half a dozen of them perhaps if they are taking up a wupan,
a couple of hundred if they are hauling a splendid junk,
its square sail set, over a rapid.
On the junk a man stands amidships
beating a drum incessantly to guide their efforts,
and they pull with all their strength,
like men possessed, bent double;
and sometimes in the extremity of their travail
they crawl on the ground, on all fours,
like the beasts of the field.
They strain, strain fiercely,
against the pitiless might of the stream.
The leader goes up and down the line
and when he sees one
who is not putting all his will into the task
he brings down his split bamboo on the naked back.
Each one must do his utmost or the labour of all is vain.
And still they sing a vehement, eager chant,
the chant of the turbulent waters.
I do not know how words can describe
what there is in it of effort.
It serves to express the straining heart, the breaking muscles,
and at the same time the indomitable spirit of man
which overcomes the pitiless force of nature.
Though the rope may part and the great junk swing back,
in the end the rapid will be passed;
and at the close of the weary day there is the hearty meal...
But the most agonising song is the song of the coolies
who bring the great bales
from the junk up the steep steps to the town wall.
Up and down they go, endlessly,
and endless as their toil rises their rhythmic cry.
He, aw-ah, oh.
They are barefoot and naked to the waist.
The sweat pours down their faces
and their song is a groan of pain.
It is a sigh of despair.
It is heart-rending.
It is hardly human.
It is the cry of souls in infinite distress, only just musical,
and that last note is the ultimate sob of humanity.
Life is too hard, too cruel,
and this is the final despairing protest.
That is the song of the river.