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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 1, No. 18 August 3, 1938

Red Army Song

Red Army Song

Brothers, it is midsummer, the hours are still warm.
And the fields are gathered in the North.
I remember our life, the shining grain in the sunlight,
The dogs in our villages quarrelling far off.
The dogs are silent, greedy and fat in the ruins.

The village is dead in the summer sunlight
The crop is gathered in the black barns, the crop of ashes;
The fruits of death lie on the endless road.

We have no homes, the Japanese stand on Manchuria.
The men without mouths, that speak out of guns.
Where their voice is heard, there are many peasants already dead.
With words and tears we assailed the enemy.
The Japanese, the locusts with human faces.

Brothers, the wind as we fled was bitter with smoke.
Scattered are the families, the children without care.
The homeless people scattered like leaves.
The children like dead leaves on the freezing stream.

I have heard that many are locked in the Japanese mills.
Where are you. O younger sister, where are you?
The families work in slavery.
Hunger moves them—hunger makes them weak.

Stand up, brothers, do not stoop.
As you bend the Japanese climb on your backs.
Stand up look, a lion rears in the sky.
It is me flying.
Loop up. I am armed.
My hands are friends to the rifle.

Look up, brothers and sisters,
I am coming with planes to defend you.