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Can anyone translate?

CinorjerCinorjer Veteran
edited November 2011 in Arts & Writings
I have an inkbrush painting given to me by a friend long ago in Korea, and I have absolutely no information as to what the chops say or what the translation of the wild calligraphy might be. It's always bugged me. Does anyone out there have access to someone who could tell me who painted this, when, and what it says? Given the occupation of Korea over the years, it might even be Japanese or Chinese and ended up in Korea. The painting started off as a scroll on the wall, but when I expressed how much I liked it, the Korean guy ended up framing it and giving it to me but had no English skills and couldn't tell me about it.

Comments

  • MindGateMindGate United States Veteran
    I could very well be wrong, but I don't believe that it is Chinese writing.
  • dorjedorje
    It's Chinese, cursive "Cao" or "grass" style. Difficult for me to read it, though. Although I see the words "water" and "art".
  • MindGateMindGate United States Veteran
    edited November 2011
    It's Chinese, cursive "Cao" or "grass" style. Difficult for me to read it, though. Although I see the words "water" and "art".
    Oh. See - that is why I didn't catch it. It looked to fluid to be the normal writing of Chinese. I haven't learned about cursive writing in Chinese.
  • dorjedorje
    If you think that's difficult to read, try this:

    image
  • BrianBrian Detroit, MI Moderator
    I shared this with a friend of mine, and she is looking into it.
  • CinorjerCinorjer Veteran
    So this is Chinese cursive? I was presented this way back in about 1980, when a Korean friend took me on a long train ride to his little fishing village, and then on to see the Sukkharam Buddha, a world famous statue and shrine on a little Korean mountaintop. I had a ball, but my friend spoke very limited English, I spoke extremely limited Korean, and we made constant use of a little translating dictionary.

    I was welcomed into his family's house, and had the happy experience of waking up in the morning on the heated floor with a couple of the children using me as a pillow. The family made stone carvings and ran a shop outside the military base, and I have some of their work. This old scroll was hanging on their wall and I remarked how much I liked it, and later the guy brought it to me, but cut into a circle and framed. Wish he'd kept it as a scroll.

    The Koreans have a very long history, stretching back to prehistory, and the Chinese and Japanese seem to have taken turns invading them throughout this history. Yet they have maintained their own unique culture and continued to rebuild. I hope their days of being invaded are over. But, we still have North Korea as the wild card.


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