Quatrain on Late Spring
Emperor Lizong Chinese
Song dynasty (960–1279)
Not on view
A Song palace seal impressed on the left-hand side of this writing reads: "Treasure of imperial writing."
In his poem, the emperor laments the coming of old age:
How spring makes me sad!
Timidly I bear the passing of spring.
The young lady has no feeling for me,
She treats my love merely as that of a waning spring.
(Wen C. Fong, trans., in Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 8th-14th Century [New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992], p. 242.)
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