Artist: Wen Zhengming
Date: 1553
Size: 44 x 464 cm
Technique: Paper
明 文徴明 行書自書詩 卷 紙本 Wen Zhengming created this masterpiece of monumental calligraphy at the age of eighty-four. The writing begins with precisely articulated brushstrokes of standard script but loosens gradually into a more spontaneous semicursive. This shift in style mirrors the content of the poem itself, which begins with scenic imagery and ends with a melancholy reflection on old age and the loss of close friends.The poem on this handscroll is translated below:Pushing their way through the gate, mountain ridges,all blue-green and craggy;A side path pierces the cloudsas you climb step by step.Green tiles in orderly profusion—lotus-world serene;Ancient vines deeply penetrating—purple cliffs crumbling away.All that passes my eyes just leads to sorrow:ephemeral realm of dust!The sphere of transcendence, kept at a distance—I’ve betrayed my monastic vocation!Of those who wandered with us ten years ago,half have passed away.There is only one thing forever shining:the votive lamp before Buddha.—Trans. by Jonathan Chaves
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