A Solitary Ocean Crossing
when you’ve experienced hardship
the stars far outnumber any weapons.
once-solid landscape like cotton on the breeze,
once-steady lives like duckweed under rain.
at land’s end yes we are terrified,
in the middle of the ocean yes we are alone.
over the ages, who has lived forever?
the loyal will shine in strips of bamboo green.
过零丁洋
文天祥
辛苦遭逢起一经，干戈寥落四周星。
山河破碎风飘絮，身世浮沉雨打萍。
惶恐滩头说惶恐，零丁洋里叹零丁。
人生自古谁无死？留取丹心照汗青。
Gushiwensday
crossing the ocean all alone: we found ourselves in dire straits—
Notes
strips of bamboo green: lit. “sweating green”, a literary allusion to historical records being incised on bamboo strips. “The historical record.”
This is a heavily autobiographical poem, and I didn’t really take that into account at the time. Some of the phrases may be translated in a way that obscures specific references made by Wen Tianxiang.