Tribute to the White Poplar
Mao Dun

The white poplar is no ordinary tree. Let me sing its praises.

When you travel by car through Northwest China’s boundless plateau,all you see before you is something like a huge yellow-and-green felt blanket.Yellow is the soil—the uncultivated virgin soil. It is the outer covering ofthe loess plateau accumulated by Mother Nature several hundred thousand yearsago. Green are the wheat fields signifying man’s triumph over nature. Theybecome a sea of rolling green waves whenever there is a soft breeze. One ishere reminded of Chinese expression mai lang meaning “rippling wheat” andcannot help admiring our forefathers’ ingenuity in coining such a happy phrase.It must have been either the brainwave of a clever scholar, or a linguistic gemsanctioned by long usage. The boundless highland, with dominant yellow and green,is flat like a whetstone. Were it not for distant mountain peaks standing sideby side (which, as your naked eyes tell you, are bellow where you stand), youwould probably forget that you are on the highland. The sight of the scene willprobably call up inside you a string of epithets like “spectacular” or “grand”.Meanwhile, however, your eyes may become weary of watching the same panorama,so much so that you are oblivious of its being spectacular or grand. And youmay feel monotony coming on. Yes, it is somewhat monotonous, isn’t it?

Now what will become of your weariness if you suddenly raise youreyes only to catch sight of distant row of trees (or just a couple of them)standing there proudly like sentries. For my part, I cannot keep from utteringan exclamation of surprise!

They are white poplars. Though very common in Northwest China, theyare no ordinary trees!

With straight trunks and branches, white poplars aim high. Theirtrunks are usually over ten feet tall and, as if wrought by human effort, utterlybare of branches below ten feet. Their twigs, also like things artificiallyshaped, all reach out towards the sky and grow close together in a clusterwithout any sideway growth. Their leaves are broad and point upwards with veryfew slanting sideways, much less upside down. Their glossy barks are a faintlight green with hazy silver spots. They stand erect and unbending in face ofNorth China’s violent wind and snow. Though they may be only as big as themouth of bowl, they strive to grow upwards until they reach the towering heightof some twenty feet and stand indomitable against the northwest wind.

They are white poplar. Though very common in Northwest China, theyare no ordinary tree! You may call them unattractive because they have neitherthe graceful carriage of a dancer, nor such branches as can twine and climb.But nevertheless they are big and tall, honest and upright, simple and plain,earnest and unyielding—and not without gentleness and warmth though. They aregiants among trees! When you trudge through the melting snow of the highlandand see one or a row of white poplars standing proudly on the vast plains, howcould you look upon them as nothing but mere trees? How could you forget thatwith all their simplicity, earnestness and unyieldingness, they are symbolic ofour peasants in the North? How could you fail to associate them with ourdauntless soldiers guarding our homeland all over the vast rear? How could youfail to see that these trees, ever striving to put out their closely knit branchesand leaves in an upward direction, are symbolic of the spirit and will of ourmen who, fighting heroically all over the northern plains, are writing thehistory of New China with their own blood?

White poplars are no ordinary trees. But these common trees inNorthwest China are as much ignored as our peasants in the North. However, likeour peasants in the North, they are bursting with vitality and capable ofsurviving any hardship or oppression. I pay tribute to them because theysymbolize our peasants in the North and, in particular, the spirit of honesty,tenacity and forging ahead—a spirit central to our struggle for nationalliberation.

The reactionary diehards, who despise and snub the common people,can do whatever they like to eulogize the elite nanmu (which is also tall,straight and good-looking) and look down upon the common, fast-growing whitepoplar. I, for my part, will be loud in my praise of the latter!