Throughout this dynasty no one had painted horses
Like the master-spirit, Prince Jiangdu --
And then to General Cao through his thirty years of fame
The world's gaze turned, for royal steeds.
He painted the late Emperor's luminous white horse.
For ten days the thunder flew over Dragon Lake,
And a pink-agate plate was sent him from the palace-
The talk of the court-ladies, the marvel of all eyes.
The General danced, receiving it in his honoured home
After this rare gift, followed rapidly fine silks
From many of the nobles, requesting that his art
Lend a new lustre to their screens.
...First came the curly-maned horse of Emperor Taizong,
Then, for the Guos, a lion-spotted horse....
But now in this painting I see two horses,
A sobering sight for whosoever knew them.
They are war- horses. Either could face ten thousand.
They make the white silk stretch away into a vast desert.
And the seven others with them are almost as noble
Mist and snow are moving across a cold sky,
And hoofs are cleaving snow-drifts under great trees-
With here a group of officers and there a group of servants.
See how these nine horses all vie with one another-
The high clear glance, the deep firm breath.
...Who understands distinction? Who really cares for art?
You, Wei Feng, have followed Cao; Zhidun preceded him.
...I remember when the late Emperor came toward his Summer Palace,
The procession, in green-feathered rows, swept from the eastern sky --
Thirty thousand horses, prancing, galloping,
Fashioned, every one of them, like the horses in this picture....
But now the Imperial Ghost receives secret jade from the River God,
For the Emperor hunts crocodiles no longer by the streams.
Where you see his Great Gold Tomb, you may hear among the pines
A bird grieving in the wind that the Emperor's horses are gone.
Original Poem:
「韦讽录事宅观曹将军画马图」
杜甫
国初以来画鞍马， 神妙独数江都王。
将军得名三十载， 人间又见真乘黄。
曾貌先帝照夜白， 龙池十日飞霹雳，
内府殷红玛瑙盘， 婕妤传诏才人索。
盘赐将军拜舞归， 轻纨细绮相追飞；
贵戚权门得笔迹， 始觉屏障生光辉。
昔日太宗拳毛騧， 近时郭家狮子花。
今之新图有二马， 复令识者久叹嗟，
此皆骑战一敌万， 缟素漠漠开风沙。
其余七匹亦殊绝， 迥若寒空杂烟雪；
霜蹄蹴踏长楸间， 马官厮养森成列。
可怜九马争神骏， 顾视清高气深稳。
借问苦心爱者谁？ 后有韦讽前支盾。
忆昔巡幸新丰宫， 翠花拂天来向东；
腾骧磊落三万匹， 皆与此图筋骨同。
自从献宝朝河宗， 无复射蛟江水中。
君不见，金粟堆前松柏里，龙媒去尽鸟呼风。
Interpretation:
In the first four lines, it is said that Cao Ba had been “famous for thirty years” before people could see the divine horse again.
In eight lines, the poet first describes in detail the past events of Cao Ba’s being favored by Emperor Xuanzong and his great fame, paving the way for the description of the Nine Horses, and laying down the meaning of the last stanza of the poem. Cao Ba’s painting of Zhaoyubai, a true image, moved the dragons in the Dragon Pond to fly and dance with wind and thunder for days. After Cao Ba was appreciated and honored by Emperor Xuanzong, his reputation was greatly boosted, and people came to his door to ask for paintings in an endless stream, and even the dignitaries and relatives felt honored to have Cao Ba’s paintings.
The poet describes the nine horses painted by Cao Ba from multiple levels and angles, and writes intricately and vividly. In the first six lines, the poet first writes about two horses, one is the Tang Emperor’s fist-feathered grey horse, which was the war horse that Emperor Taizong rode when he pacified Liu Haixu, and the other one is the Guo family’s lion’s flower, i.e., the Nine-Flower Gnarled Horse, which was the imperial horse that Emperor Daizong of the Tang Dynasty bestowed on Guo Ziyi. The two horses are war horse, one to be ten thousand, once you open the scroll, you can see the two horses in the wide remote battlefield sand flying, the poet from a realistic point of view, praised the picture of the two horses on the drawing of the high quality.
The last paragraph, the first four lines of Xuanzong’s tour of Mount Li’s pomp and circumstance. Emperor Xuanzong’s visit to Mount Li, the emperor’s carriage is full of cuihua Weiweiwei, flags in the sky, tens of thousands of stables and horses, each color of the horse is listed as a team, the horses are interspersed, as far as the brocade in general. Tang Xuanzong love horse picture, favor Cao Ba, tour of Xinfeng Palace, tens of thousands of horses followed, once returned to the order, the group of horses are gone, the pine and cypress with sadness, this knot, rhyme long, the sigh of prosperity and decline, the sigh, all the way up and down, all of the feelings in which.
Poet from the painting of the horse to the painter’s favor, from the painting of the horse to the real horse, from the real horse to the current affairs, from Xuanzong’s tour to the ascension of the poem, the thought of the poem is constantly expanding, sent the poet to Xuanzong’s deep feelings of nostalgia. When describing the real horse and current affairs, the poet inserts a phrase from time to time, referring to the painting of the horse, using the painting and the horse as a clue to bring up the whole poem.
The whole poem is full of deep feelings and waves, with steep turns of strokes, fine veins, longitudinal and horizontal tumbling of the chapters, majestic and turbulent atmosphere, and extremely somber and staccato rhythms, which is really a masterpiece of the ancient and modern poems on painting and calligraphy.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Du Fu (杜甫), 712 – 770 AD, was a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, known as the “Sage of Poetry”. Born into a declining bureaucratic family, Du Fu had a rough life, and his turbulent and dislocated life made him keenly aware of the plight of the masses. Therefore, his poems were always closely related to the current affairs, reflecting the social life of that era in a more comprehensive way, with profound thoughts and a broad realm. In his poetic art, he was able to combine many styles, forming a unique style of “profound and thick”, and becoming a great realist poet in the history of China.
