Su Dongpo in a Borrowed Hat
Inscription by Ōsen Keisan Japanese
This painting depicts the Song-dynasty poet Su Dongpo (1037–1101), exiled on Hainan Island, in a borrowed bamboo hat and clogs during a sudden downpour. The poem was brushed by Ōsen Keisan, one of the most prominent Zen monks of the fifteenth century. It reads:
雲霧窓耶烟雨村 居中補外捴天恩
九州四海笠簷底 百是千非屐齒痕
Clouds and mist fill the window, alas,
as the village is shrouded in rain and fog.
Whether [an official] serving at court
or dispatched to the provinces,
both are at the behest
of the emperor’s benevolence.
The realm of the Nine Provinces and Four Seas
lies beneath the brim of his bamboo hat.
Hundreds of rights and thousands of wrongs
are tracked by the footprints
of his wooden clogs
—Trans. Tim T. Zhang
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