Michael Ondaatje
The Great Tree
The Great Tree
"Zou Fulei died like a dragon breaking down a wall...
this line composed and ribboned
in cursive script
by his friend the poet Yang Weizhen
whose father built a library
surrounded by hundreds of plum trees
It was Zou Fulei, almost unknown,
who made the best plum flower painting
of any period
One branch lifted into the wind
and his friend's vertical line of character
their tones of ink
—wet to opaque
dark to pale
each sweep and gesture
trained and various
echoing the other's art
In the high plum-surrounded library
where Yang Weizhen studied as a boy
a moveable staircase was pulled away
to ensure his solitary concentration
His great work
"untrammelled" "eccentric""unorthodox"
"no taint of the superficial"
"no flamboyant movement"
using at times the lifted tails
of archaic script,
sharing with Zou Fulei
his leaps and darknesses
*
"So I have always held you in my heart...
The great 14th-century poet calligrapher
mourns the death of his friend
Language attacks the paper from the air
There is only a path of blossoms
no flamboyant movement
A night of smoky ink in 1361
a night without a staircase
