The Poetry Cottage

Inscription: Artist’s inscription and signature (1 line followed by 11 columns in semi-cursive script)

The Poetry Cottage

An essay is attached to the end. The cottage described in this essay is the cottage of Mr. Hu in the capital. The cottage depicted in the painting is the one Mr. Hu dreams of having. Noted by Lin Shu on the eighteenth day of the first month of the jiayin year (1914).

詩廬
記附後。記中所述則胡君京師之廬耳。此圖則圖胡君意中之所欲得者也。甲寅正月十八日林紓識。


Artist’s colophon (20 columns in semi-cursive script)

Essay on the Poetry Cottage

My friend Hu Zifang from Xijiang came to the capital as an official. He has a sign for his house calling it Shi Lu [Poetry Cottage]. He is so poor that he could not afford to buy a house; he just rents a place to live. Oh, those who take temporary residence in Beijing are all survivors of upheaval. Why use “rent” only for houses? Their lives are rented. On leisure days, I hang the works done by distinguished people on my four walls, as though in Mr. Hu’s house. My house is also a poetry studio.

Today there are even more poets than in the late Ming dynasty. But those I really admire are only Hu’s townsman Chen Boyan and my hometown fellows Chen Jusou and Zheng Taiyi. Boyan is the best student of Jusou and Mr. Hu studied with Boyan. The sign on his house is written by Taiyi. All the people I associate with are either Hu’s teachers or friends. He benefited from his circle in his study of poetry.

As to the three gentlemen, Boyan studied Zhenyao [Meng Jiao, 751–814] and got his spirit and bone. Taiyi learned from Meng [Jiao] in the beginning, and later moved on to Tao [Tao Yuanming, 365–427]. Recently he has followed Shangu [Huang Tingjian, 1045–1105] and Linchuan [Yan Shu, 991–1055]. His poetry has the bone of the Song dynasty and the face of the Tang. Only Jusou’s poems have far-reaching ideas and are pure but not thin, dry but still soft, full of power, grandeur, and solemn and stirring sound. They are really poems of the remnant citizens of ancient times. Mr. Hu admired these three men and studied every day to approach their level. If there is anyone who can surpass Boyan, it will be Hu. Hu is now just in his thirties. He is also proficient in English and navigation. He hides his talents but enjoys himself in poetry. Along with admiring the three gentlemen, Hu also respects me, and asked me both to write an essay on his cottage and to do a painting. At year’s end, I still hadn’t done a painting but first wrote this essay.

In the first month of the jiayin year (1914) Lin Shu wrote this at the Chunjue Zhai Studio.

[Translation by Keita Itoh and Lawrence Wu with Jean Schmitt and Caron Smith in Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, ed., Later Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: 1800–1950, Volume I: Text, New York: Random House, 1986, p. 120. Modified. The Romanization of Chinese characters has been changed from the Wade-Giles system to the pinyin system.]

詩廬記
吾友胡君梓方自西江來宦京師，顏其居曰“詩廬”。君貧不能買宅，隨所賃而廬之。嗟夫！客長安者皆假息亂餘，雖軀命亦可云賃，即賃而獨作廬邪。暇日余嘗造之，四壁皆名流報贈之作，因恍然於胡君之廬，亦廬其詩耳。方今海内詩人之盛過於晚明，而余所最服膺者為君之鄉人陳伯嚴、吾鄉陳橘叟、鄭太夷而已。伯嚴為橘叟高弟，而君又親受業於伯嚴，廬則太夷顏之。凡余所交君皆師之友之，宜其窮年治詩而不已。三君中伯嚴宗貞曜，神骨皆肖。太夷初亦取徑於孟，後乃歸陶，近則為山谷臨川，然能宋骨而唐面。獨橘叟幽峭緜遠，清而不癯，枯而能膏，氣囗而聲悲，古遺民之詩也。胡君歸仰三君，日磨治而求近之。後來克紹伯嚴之學者其胡君矣。且年甫三十許，精英文及水師行陳之學，乃自託於詩而閟其長。於三君外又偉視余，必得余記其廬且徴余畫。歲暮未有以應，姑先以記為乘常之先焉。
甲寅正月林紓書於春覺齋。


Artist’s seals

Weilu 畏廬
Lin Shu siyin 林紓私印


Collector’s seal

An Siyuan 安思遠 (Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, 1929–2014)
An Siyuan cang 安思遠藏

Robert H. Ellsworth Chinese, New York (until 1986; donated to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Painting: Selections from the Robert H. Ellsworth Collection," February 2–September 25, 1988.