buzzed with a ringing sound, he felt faint. But he did not really faint away. He felt an acute distress at one moment but in another moment he was at peace with the world, probably feeling that it was in the nature of things that some people should be unlucky enough to have their heads cut off.
Why were they not heading him directly toward the execution ground? Ah Q had not lost his bearings, but he did not know that he was being paraded through the streets as a warning. If he had known, it would have only occurred to him that that, too, was in the nature of things.
Finally he realized that he was being taken to the execution ground in a roundabout way, that there was no question that he was going to have his head—zip!—cut off. Indifferently he looked to the right and left and was dimly conscious of crowds of people like ants. Then his eyes fell upon Wu-ma, whom he had not seen for a long time as she had in the meantime found work in the city. Suddenly he felt ashamed of himself because of his tameness, because he had not sung a few sentences from the plays to show how little he cared. Feverishly he considered his stock: "The Little Widow at Her Husband's Grave" was not dignified enough for the occasion; he had already done to death the song beginning with "I regret . . . " in the play Struggle between Dragon and Tiger; perhaps he had best sing "With the steel whip in my hand I shall smite thee." He thought of raising his right hand for effect, but suddenly realized that his hands were tied behind his back. He had to give up that, too, as he was something of a perfectionist.
"In twenty years I'll be here again . . . ,"[1] Ah Q sud-
- ↑ Common formula of defiance used by desperadoes on their way to the execution ground and signifying a sure return, in another incarnation, to carry on where they left off.
