Chinese Poem Extolling a Reclusive Lifestyle
Jakugon Taijō Japanese
Unaffiliated with Zen sects but working in the Zen calligraphy tradition, the Shingon monk Jakugon Taijō achieved recognition as a scholar of Sanskrit and a calligrapher. He is considered one of the great monk-calligraphers of the Edo period, alongside Jiun Onkō and Ryōkan Taigu, also represented in the Cowles Collection.
The inscribed poem, by the Chinese poet Li Panlong (1514–1570), reads:
君去何時歸 山中春草夕
莫将白雲廬 不及紅塵陌
Now that you are leaving,
when might you return
To the spring grasses
in the mountains at dusk?
Do you really believe that a thatched hut
shrouded in white clouds
Does not have more to offer than
the mundane realm of red dust?
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