An Elegiac Couplet Inscribed for Bethune[1]

(December 1, 1939)

Traversing ten thousand li, he upheld international peace, worthy to be called a model Communist;

With a bosom full of ardent blood, he strengthened our anti-war battlefront, fit to be revered as the North Star and Mount Tai of the medical field.

[1] Bethune (1890–1939), a native of Ontario, Canada, graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine in 1916. He joined the Communist Party of Canada in 1935. In 1937, after the War of Resistance Against Japan broke out, he was dispatched by the Communist Party of Canada and the Communist Party of the United States to lead a medical team composed of Canadians and Americans to China. In 1939, he contracted an infection and poisoning while rescuing the wounded, treatment proved ineffective, and he passed away on November 12 of the same year in Tang County, Hebei. This elegiac couplet was composed by Mao Zedong when he attended the memorial meeting for Bethune held by various circles in Yan’an.