A Scroll Painting
the mountains are hazy with timeless passivity
sprawling monotonously in the left-hand corner
while clouds diffuse and fill the entire top half
before bumping daintily into a bright red parakeet
perched suicide-like on a beautiful gnarled branch
arched by the weight of fruit and one ripe peach
hung a motionless inch from the gaping beak
here is transient beauty
caught in permanence
but of what avail is such perpentual unattainment?
i know the stupid bird can never eat the stupid peach
Commentary
This poem speaks mostly for itself, to me it is about the essential uselessness of some art. For those who have never seen a Chinese painting, just think Amy Tan and tigers and goldfish and willows and songbirds. The object of most scrolls is to capture ‘transient beauty’ or some similar profound notion about nature.
About the poet: Arthur Yap was born in Singapore in 1943. His first collection of poems, ‘Only Lines’ was published in 1971, for which he received the National Book Development Council of Singapore’s first award for poetry.He has since published various collections of verse such as ‘Man Snake Apple’ and ‘Commonplace’. In 1983, he was awarded the prestigious Southeast Asia Write Award in Bangkok and the Cultural Medallion for Literature in Singapore. He is also a prolific painter.
— Ann
Show 2 commentsHide comments
From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Matt Chanoff · 29 April 2001
To me this poem seems obviously a reply to Keats, who says, in the second stanza of Ode on a Grecian Urn:
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on: Not to the sensual ear; but more endear’d,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal – yet, do not grieve; She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, For ever wilt thou love, and she be fare
And comparing the last lines:
‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’ – that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
with
“I know the stupid bird can never eat the stupid peach.”
I’d have to give the nod to Keats.
sandi_ordinario · 5 May 2003
Comments on Arthur Yap’s A Scroll Painting
The poet writes an excellent description of a painting. I imagine this to be some kind of Chinese brush painting as it shows “hazy” mountains and “diffused clouds” bumping daintily into a bright red parakeet perched suicide-like..” having a gaping beak just about an inch away from a temptingly ripe peach.
The poet states further that this painting captures “transient beauty in ‘passive’ permanence” Then he proceeds to ask the question which I paraphrase: But what use is this perpetual unattainment by the bird?
In the poet’s artistic way, he is complaining that art can never approach the dynamism of life. It is an assent to another poet’s assertion which goes: “Nature I loved and next to nature, art.” A preference in that order. This is expressed radically in the last line of the poem.
I know the stupid bird can never eat the stupid peach.
A wonderful poem along the lines of a typical O. Henry short story which has the surprise twist (or denouement) at the end.
Sandi