军歌应唱大刀环，誓灭胡奴出玉关。

只解沙场为国死，何须马革裹尸还！

Back to Beyond the Yumen Pass¹

Xu Xilin

A tune of triumphant return

Our martial song “Broadsword” must ring.

Back to beyond the Yumen Pass,

We vow the alien brutes to fling.

Prepared but on the battlefield

To die for our country, in pride,

Do we care whether our remains

Will be brought back wrapped in horse-hide?

1. The Yumen Pass, western Gansu Province, ever since ancient times has been regarded as a sort of “watershed” between China Proper and the western minority regions.

（王知还 译）