Artist Inscriptions: Wu Zhen 吳鎮 (1280–1354) – (17)
Ink on paper. 16 poems (each: 7, 7, 3, 3, 7); plus postscript.2
Each poem, 4 or 5 columns, plus postscript, 8 columns, cursive script.
Poem One – (4 columns) 洞庭湖上晚風生，風觸湖心一葉橫，蘭棹穩，草衣輕，只釣鱸魚不
釣名。
Out on Cavern Courtyard Lake, the evening wind is born,
Wind strikes the lake’s heart where a leaf is crossing.
Magnolia oar steady,
Light, his robes of grass,
He only fishes perch fish, and does not fish for fame.3
Poem Two – (4 columns) 重整絲綸欲棹船，江頭明月正明圓，酒缾倒，草花懸，拋却漁竿
踏月眠。
He readjusts his silken line, about to row his boat,
At river’s head just now, the moon is shining bright and round.
Wine jug upside-down,
Hanging in grass and flowers,
He casts aside his fishing rod, treads moonlight in his sleep.
Poem Three – (4 columns) 殘陽浦裏漾魚船，青草湖中欲暮天，看白鳥，下平川，點破瀟湘
萬里煙。
A fishing boat drifts by the shore in fading sunset,
Out on Green Grass Lake, the sky is turning to dusk.
See the white birds
Descending to the the level stream,
Dots that pierce a myriad li of Xiao-Xiang River mist.
Poem Four – (4 columns) 如何小小作絲綸，祗向湖中養一身，任公子，龍伯人，枉釣如山
截海鱗。
Why is his silken line made so very frail and thin?
He only goes into the lake to feed a single person.
The son of the Duke of Ren,
And the giant of the Dragon Earl,
Bent mountain-size hooks and cut up ocean monsters.4
Poem Five – (4 columns)
極浦遙看兩岸斜，碧波微影弄晴霞，孤舟小，去無涯，[阿]那箇汀洲[是]下是家。5
At the utmost end of the creek where the two shores converge, Faint
reflections of rosy clouds play upon the emerald waves.
His lonely craft small,
Gone on the boundless main,
Below which sandy islet does his family home lie?
Poem Six – (4 columns)
雪色□
6鬚一老翁，能將短棹撥長空，微有雨，正無風，宜在五湖煙水中。
Snowy beard and moustache, this venerable oldster Can
take his little oar to stir the vast empyrean.
There’s a tiny bit of rain,
Just now there is no wind,
How fine it is to be on Five Lakes’ misty waters.
Poem Seven – (4 columns) 綠楊灣裏夕陽微，萬里霞光浸落暉，擊棹去，未能歸，驚起沙鷗
撲鹿飛。
In the cove of green willows, evening light is faint,
The glowing sun sinks in a myriad li of rosy clouds.
Striking his oar as he goes,
He cannot yet come home,
Suddenly startled, sand gulls fly off in a whoosh.
Poem Eight – (5 columns) 月移山影照漁船，船載山行月在前，山突兀，月嬋娟，一曲漁歌
山月連。無船。
Moon shifts mountain reflection, illumines a fisherman’s boat,
The boat moves, bearing the mountain, with the moon in front.
Mountain steep and tall,
Moon lovely and alluring,
In a single fisherman’s song, the mountain and moon connect.
No boat.
Poem Nine – (5 columns)
風攪長江浪攪風，魚龍混雜一川中，藏深浦，繫長松，直待雲收月在[中]
7空。
Wind ruffles the Long River, waves ruffle the wind,
Fish and dragons mix and mingle in the same stream.
Hiding up the deep creek,
Tied to a long-lived pine,
He only waits for clouds to clear, moon in the sky.
Poem Ten – (4 columns) 舴艋為舟力幾多，江頭雲雨半相和，殷勤好，下長波，半夜潮生不
那何。
Little skiff for a boat, what strength does he need?
At the river head, clouds and rain half intermingle.
If he is diligent enough,
Rides the long waves down,
When tides rise at midnight, he will have no worries.
Poem Eleven – (4 columns) 殘霞返照四山明，雲起雲收陰復晴，風脚動，浪頭生，聽取虛
蓬夜雨聲。
Mountains glow in the last fading glimmer of sunset; Clouds
rise, clouds clear, and shadows turn to light.
As the wind moves its feet,
And waves spring to life,
He hears the sound of night rain on the empty awning.
Poem Twelve – (4 columns) 無端垂釣定潭心，魚大船輕力不任，憂傾側，繫浮沈，事事從
輕不要深。
No cause to drop one’s line in the center of the pool; Fish
are big, the boat light, his strength not enough.
Anxious he’ll capsize,
Concerned to keep afloat,
He goes light in everything and stays away from depth.
Poem Thirteen – (4 columns)
釣得紅鱗拽水開，錦鱗敤較逐鉤來，搖赬尾，噞紅腮，不羨嚴陵坐釣臺。
He’s caught a red-scaled fish, drags it from the water;
Its brocade scales of mottled color follow on the hook.
It shakes its crimson tail,
And puffs its reddish gills;
He does not envy Yan Ling sitting on his fishing ledge.8
Poem Fourteen – (5 columns) 五嶺風光絕四隣，滿川鳧鴈是交親，雲觸岸，浪搖身，青草
煙深不見人。
Wind and light at Five Peaks surpass all else around; Ducks
and geese out on the river are his closest kin.
Clouds beat the shore,
Billows stir and toss;
Mist so deep on Green Grass Lake, people can’t be seen.
Poem Fifteen – (4 columns) 舴艋舟人無姓名，葫蘆提酒樂平生，香稻飯，滑蓴羹，棹月穿
雲任性情。
This boatman in his little skiff has no name at all;
In bottle gourds he takes his wine, lives a life of joy.
Fragrant paddy rice,
Luscious water-mallow soup;
He rows the moonlight, piercing clouds, going as he will.
Poem Sixteen – (4 columns) 桃花波起五湖春，一葉隨風萬里身，釣絲細，香餌均，元來不
是取魚人。
Peach blossom waves rise on Five Lakes in spring, A
single leaf upon the wind, gone ten-thousand li.
His fishing line is thin,
The fragrant bait shared out,
From the start, he was not a man who catches fish.
Postscript – (8 columns)
余昔喜關仝山水，清□
9可愛。原其所以，出于荊浩筆法。後見荊畫《唐人漁父圖》，有如
此製作，遂傚而為一軸。流散而去，今復見之，乃知物有會遇時也。一日維中持此卷來命
識之。吁，昔之畫，今之題，殆十餘年矣。流光曷得，悲夫！至正十二年壬辰秋九月廿一
日，梅花道人書于武塘慈雲之僧舍。
In the past I was fond of Guan Tong’s [active early 10th century] landscapes, for their clarity and
strength were worthy of affection. As these [traits] originally derived from the painting style of
Jing Hao [late 9th–early 10th century, when I later saw Jing’s painting Fishermen, after an artist of
the Tang, which was very like this in composition, I copied it forthwith and made this scroll. [The
painting] was lost during my wandering about, but seeing it again now, I know that things are meant
to meet at a certain times. One day, Weizhong brought this scroll and commanded me to inscribe it.
Oh, since painting it long ago and inscribing it now, it must be more than a decade. Alas, how sad!
For how can one stay the fleeting light? Twenty-first day in the ninth lunar-month, autumn of
renchen, twelfth year in the Zhizheng reign period [October 29, 1352], written by the
Plum Blossom Daoist [Wu Zhen] in the monk’s dormitory of Compassionate Clouds [Temple] in
Wutang [modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province].
Signature: 梅花道人
Meihua daoren
Date: 至正十二年壬辰秋九月廿一日
Seals: (8)
[Meihua] an『[梅花]盦』(square relief; left half) – painting, top right – (1/7)
Meihua an『梅花盦』(square relief) – painting, paper join 1, top – (2/7)
Meihua an『梅花盦』(square relief) – painting, paper join 2, top – (3/7)
Meihua an『梅花盦』(square relief) – painting, paper join 3, top – (4/7)
Meihua an『梅花盦』(square relief) – painting, paper join 4, top – (5/7)
Meihua an『梅花盦』(square relief) – painting, paper join 5,
top – (6/7) Meihua an『梅花盦』(square relief) – following signature – (7/7)
Jiaxing Wu Zhen Zhonggui shuhua ji『嘉興吳鎮仲圭書畫記』(square
intaglio) – following signature
