Poem on a Riverside Pavilion

Inscription: Artist’s inscription and signature (4 columns in semi-cursive script)

At dusk, in a lonely pavilion,
I bring a ewer of wine while the moon is new.
The river and the sky are wide and far,
A temple in the mist disappears into the emptiness.
Several fishing boats hide in the distance,
Behind sparse ancient trees from a former dynasty.
With my rusty armory and aged eyes,
I had no intension to continue writing letters.

Composed when invited by Qu Jingyuan (dates unknown) for a drink at the Zhenjiang Pavilion on Mount Qingliang (in Nanjing). Written in the company of Ruoshui in the spring of the xinsi year (1641) for the instruction of my elderly in-law Xunru.[1]
[Signed] Wang Duo

日暮孤亭上，攜壺正月初。
江天憑浩渺，煙寺入空虛。
幾處漁舟穩，前朝古木疏。
鐵衣隨老眼，何意續山書。

清涼山枕江亭屈靜原招飲作。辛巳春日同若水書，循如老親丈教正。王鐸

Artist’s seals

Wang Duo zhi yin 王鐸之印
Zongbo xueshi 宗伯學士


Label strip

Shidaoren 詩道人 (dates unknown), 1 columns in semi-cursive script, undated (mounted on brocade wrapper):

王覺斯先生行書 詩道人題。

Collectors’ seals

Lin Xiongguang 林熊光 (1898–1971)
朗盦六十以后所得
林氏家藏

Zhu Pu 朱樸 (1901–1970)
朱省齋書畫記
晚知書畫真有益, 卻悔歲月來無多
梁谿朱氏省齋珍藏書畫印

Gu Luofu 顧洛阜 (John M. Crawford, Jr., 1913–1988)
漢光閣主顧洛阜鑑藏中國古代書畫之章
顧洛阜
漢光閣

[1] Translation by Maxwell K. Hearn and from Department records.

Marking:

John M. Crawford Jr. American, New York (until d. 1988; bequeathed to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Text and Image: The Interaction of Painting, Poetry, and Calligraphy," January 23–August 16, 1999.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Companions in Solitude: Reclusion and Communion in Chinese Art," July 31, 2021–August 14, 2022.

Shih Shou-ch'ien, Maxwell K. Hearn, and Alfreda Murck. The John M. Crawford, Jr., Collection of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Checklist. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1984, p. 38, cat. no. 124.