The gnarled branch is rendered with rough brushstrokes, its twisted form stretching outward. The plum blossoms and buds are drawn with delicate, economical lines.
Toward the open arms of the branches, a verse is inscribed in cursive script alongside a signature and a meticulously carved seal. The poem introduces a nocturnal dimension absent from the image itself, casting the plum blossoms as a moral embodiment of the solitary and resilient scholar. It reads:
瘦影涵明月
清香任遠風
Slender shadows embrace the bright moon,
pure fragrance entrusted to the distant breeze.
Trans. by Tim T. Zhang
The gnarled branch is rendered with rough brushstrokes, its twisted form stretching outward. The plum blossoms and buds are drawn with delicate, economical lines.
Toward the open arms of the branches, a verse is inscribed in cursive script alongside a signature and a meticulously carved seal. The poem introduces a nocturnal dimension absent from the image itself, casting the plum blossoms as a moral embodiment of the solitary and resilient scholar. It reads:
瘦影涵明月
清香任遠風
Slender shadows embrace the bright moon,
pure fragrance entrusted to the distant breeze.
Trans. by Tim T. Zhang
Title:
Plum Blossoms
Creator:
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Inscriptions, Signatures, and Seals:
Inscription:
瘦影涵明月
清香任遠風
Slender shadows embrace the bright moon,
pure fragrance entrusted to the distant breeze.
Signature: Donghao Yue 東皋越 [Japanese: Tōkō Etsu]
Seals: (Upper right, oval shape relief seal) Donggao 東皋 [TōKō]
(Square relief seal) Yuezi 越子 [Etsushi]; (square relief seal with outlined characters) Fangwai shiren 方外士人 [Hōgai shijin](The scholar beyond the secular world) （Lower left, square intaglio seal) Woyou quanshi 臥游泉石 [Gayū senseki](Reclining with [imaginative] travel of spprings and rocks)
(Collector’s seals, Lower right, square relief sea) Zhonghe qinshi 中和琴室 (Zither Studio of Balanced Harmony); Gao Luopei yin 高羅佩印 (Gao Luopei’s [Robert van Gulik] seal) (On verso of the scroll) Gao Luopei cang 高羅佩藏 (Collection of Gao Luopei [Robert van Gulik])
