A peasant's shack, a deserted road, I loaf in my old clothes

Country Cottage

A peasant's shack beside the
Clear river, the rustic gate
Opens on a deserted road.
Weeds grow over the public well.
I loaf in my old clothes. Willow
Branches sway. Flowering trees
Perfume the air. The sun sets
Behind a flock of cormorants,
Drying their black wings along the pier.
- Tu Fu (712-770), translated by Kenneth Rexroth, One Hundred Poems From The Chinese

This brush painting embodies the Taoist spirit of wu wei—effortless simplicity, solitude, and contentment in ordinary things. Tu Fu's vision of the peasant's life beside the clear river invites us into quietness, where weeds, willows, and cormorants carry as much weight as any palace. Kenneth Rexroth's translation, from One Hundred Poems From The Chinese, carries the same unhurried plainness Tu Fu practiced — language that does not reach, but rests.This piece belongs to a series of brush paintings exploring the Zen and Taoist hermit tradition — the ancient conviction that a deserted road and old clothes can hold as much as a kingdom.
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