07-Yang Shen’s Immortals by the River
- Transcript
- Just as music leaves a lingering resonance after the performance ends, calligraphy too, with the passage of time, evokes deep and profound emotions through its rhythm and spirit. A thoughtful consideration of space is key, and it is from this awareness that a truly great work is born.
Korean calligrapher Park Young-jin’s piece “Immortal at the River” is a powerful interpretation of the famous lines from Ming Dynasty scholar Yang Shen’s “Tales from the Three Kingdoms”: These iconic verses in the work are known to many in East-Asian society, but Park offers a fresh perspective. The right half of the work reimagines the poem in a seal script inspired by the Qin and Han dynasties, while the left half revisits it in flowing cursive script. The poem, rich with the writer's personal reflections, contemplates the rise and fall of heroes, the impermanence of life, and the timeless stories of past and present. Amid the boldness of the words, there is a subtle poetic yearning for retreat into nature, a sentiment that permeates the work and imbues it with a spirited beauty.
PARK Young-jin
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