Don’t tell me women are not the stuff of heroes.
The young intellectuals are all chanting, “Revolution, Revolution,” but I say the revolution will have to start in our homes, by achieving equal rights for women.
Today the two hundred million men in our country are entering into a civilized new world…but we, the two hundred million women, are still kept down in the dungeon.
Sun and moon have no light left, earth is dark;
Our women’s world is sunk so deep, who can help us?
Jewelry sold to pay this trip across the seas,
Cut off from my family I leave my native land.
Unbinding my feet I clean out a thousand years of poison,
With heated heart arouse all women’s spirits.
Alas, this delicate kerchief here
Is half stained with blood, and half with tears.
With all my heart I beseech and beg my two hundred million female compatriots to assume their responsibility as citizens. Arise! Arise! Chinese women, arise!
Autumn rain, autumn wind, they make one die of sorrow.
