The China Bridge

With a tank of ink falling into the halo of the westering sun and the scarlet of blood sealed the horizon, the vast and lonely water of Lingdingyang was like a dark black withering peony, dragging a long tail of a harsh winter.
By that time, the patriotic poet Wen Tianxiang of the Southern Song Dynasty was escorted across the Pearl River Estuary by the enemy army of Yuan.
Standing on the deck, under a big sail, he was in a loose gown and a belt. There was intense pathos and questionings between eyebrows. His shackled hands were clutching the side of the ship, his beard was blown messy by the chilly sea breeze. Recalling the ups and downs in half of his life, thinking of his great ambitions ended up with his being imprisoned and detained alone on the enemy’s ship. Chilly winds howled and swept across the Lingdingyang Ocean, Wen gave out a deep sigh to the sky. Taking up the writing brush which was prepared for summoning his colleagues to surrender by Zhang Hongfan, leader of the enemy army, without any thinking or stop, he wrote down a heroic poem called Crossing the Lonely Ocean: