泰晤士(TIMES)四合院儿

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That the painting and the religiosity of this place are closely linked becomes apparent when we read a marvelous poem of the “lyric” ci 词type by one of the most important and probably most prolific of the Yellow Mountain poets, Cao Zhenji (1634–1698). It is one that he wrote for inscription upon a painting by Gong Xian (also known as Banqian), today apparently lost (the poem, like the others by Cao below, are here translated for the first time)2

在表现黄山之诗情画意时，作者们常常怀有敬畏之心。这种敬仰我们可以从诗人曹贞吉（1634-1698）题在龚贤画上的一首词中明确感受得到。在所有歌咏黄山的诗人当中曹贞吉是相当重要的一位，诗作颇丰。龚贤即龚半千，如今画已迭失，但此词和曹氏其它几首咏黄山的诗词已由本文作者首次在此译成英文。[注2]


Inscribed on a Painting by Gong Banqian

[To the tune] Die lian hua, “Butterflies Love the Flowers”

Bones of rock, jutting upwards,
startling as they surge from ground
A thousand feet of twisting vines,
Coiling cliffs with force of writhing dragons!
Half a thatched hut, left standing after battering by wind
Inside must be a recluse sleeping.

Outside the gate now
flies not one speck of dust
New reeds grow, tender green—
And dark mist hides a sense of river, lake.
May I move to live inside this painting,
A plot within the realm of Never Care

曹贞吉【蝶恋花•题龚半千画】

石骨嶙峋惊拔地。
千尺藤萝，盘壁蛟龙势。
茅屋半间风打碎。
个中应有幽人睡。
门外片尘飞不起。
嫩绿新蒲，杳霭江湖意。
倘许移家来画里。
一廛请隶无怀氏。

Until the final two lines, there is a verbal presentation of the contents of the painting. Nature here is wild, untamed, and even “romantic,” and it is dark, with a brooding, blackish tonality characteristic of many of Gong’s finest works. Perhaps the mood of sadness at the recent crisis in China’s fate has somehow found its reflection in nature. At the same time, this is not “uninhabited” nature. No people are shown, but there is a hut, threatened by brutal winds, that most likely houses one of those contemporary recluses who had withdrawn from the chaos of the world. Then unexpectedly, in the last two lines, the poet speaks in his personal voice, expressing a desire to enter the painting and to live there! For all the forbidding aspects of the landscape, it is in fact the realm of an ancient mythical ruler named Never Care, whose reign was so humane and harmonious that his citizens had nary a care in the world. That is, the painting shows us what was known in the West as Arcadia, an idyllic ancient regime which, although not completely free of conflict and tension, was, by comparison with today’s troubled society, an earthly paradise, free even of “one speck of dust.” (Virgil’s Eclogues provide a perfect example from Roman literature.) In the world of Gong’s painting, as experienced by Cao Zhenji, antiquity and the contemporary world have become one; time has been collapsed or transcended, and a spiritual victory has been grasped from the jaws of defeat, a victory in which the truths of Confucian teaching have again proved their perduring power against human suffering. And yet the poet is still on this side of the realm depicted in the painting. He leaves us with his “prayer” for access to that world.

诗词前面几行我们看到的只是诗人对画中内容的描述，画所描绘的是荒山僻壤，犹如混沌初开之时，整幅画面笼罩在一片阴森森、黑乎乎的气氛之中，昏昏沉沉却又有几分浪漫。龚贤作品的精彩之处也往往在于此。可到了末尾这两行话题却突然一转。也许画家是触景生情，从某种程度上画出了他当时的心境：国难虽已过，心绪仍未平。但这种荒凉并没有到“荒无人烟”的地步，虽没画人物却有茅屋一间，顶着狂风，里面很可能住着某个隐士，为避乱世，遁迹山林，面临狂风又何足道哉...... 描绘至此，诗人在末尾这两句突然笔锋一转，道出了自己的心声；他想：“移家来画里”。尽管从画中情形看，此地做为宅居极为不宜，诗人却把它比作远古神话中无怀氏管辖的封地，她抚世安邦，其民生乐而无忧。那就是说，画中描绘的相当于西方人说的阿卡迪亚——是人间乐园，里面虽然不是没有争执、没有矛盾，但跟当今之社会相比，它则是人间天堂了，而且“一尘不染。”（语出古罗马诗人维吉尔的《牧歌集》）在龚贤的画中曹贞吉看到了古今的融合、时空的超越、精神的升华：山河虽破，志不可夺。儒家文人面对人间历难时信奉的处世真谛在此又一次得到了证实。然而在现实中诗人却仍然身处画外，只能望画兴叹，希望能够有进入那个画境之路。

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Source: A collection of essays for the Exhibition of Art of the Mountain, 2017-18, works by China's top landscape photographers 《中国名山大川摄影展》, New York 2017-18