Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
The Dead Soldier's Talk
One. Towards a Battlefield
Again, These Days I Have Been Thinking of You
On the 20th National Anniversary
Promise
The First Photograph
Marching towards Martyrdom
Active Defense
A Battalion-Commander Complains to His Secretary
A Forced March
A Hero's Mother Blames Her Daughter
My Knowledge of the Russian Language
Two. The Dissolution of a Kingdom
My Kingdom
A Sacred Mango
A Page from a Schoolboy's Diary
Because We Dare Not Be Ambitious
Our Words
A Thirteen-Year-Old Accuses His Teacher
Not Because We Did Not Want to Die
A Happy Night
The Execution of a Counter-Revolutionary
Gift
A Brother's Advice
Three. No Tears for Love
The Haircut
A Young Worker's Lament to His Former Girlfriend
An Editor Meets His Former Girlfriend in a Fish House
An Old Novelist's Will
Our Date on the Bridge
Snow
Four. Ways
Ways
Begging
To an Ancient Chinese Poet
To My Aunt
A Young Woman Scientist Writes to Her Three-Year-Old Son
An Older Scholar's Advice
A Rumor
A General's Comments on a Politician
An Old Red Guard's Reply
A Photograph from China
Because I Will Be Silenced