Painting a Poem
Hung Liu, Mountain Ghost, 2012. Oil paint on canvas.
By Chloe LeRoy, Graduate Class 2025
In this painting, Hung Liu interprets the poem Mountain Ghost or Mountain Spirit by the Chinese poet Qu Yuan (338-278 BC). The poem focuses on a Mountain Spirit who is longing for her lover. In the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution at the end of the 1970s, Qu Yuan became a symbol of intellectual freedom and individual integrity. By integrating traditional-style painting into this piece, Hung Liu creates an impactful fusion of symbols, tradition, and her contemporary perspective on his poem.
Mountain Spirit by Qu Yuan
There seems to be someone in the mountain hollow
Draped in creeping fig with pine-gauze sash,
Peering through narrowed eyes, and sweetly smiling too.
“You desire me, for you love my lithe beauty.”
Drawn by red panthers, followed by striped wild cats,
Her magnolia wagon flies a flag of woven cinnamon bark.
Cloaked in orchids, asarum sash around her waist,
She picks the sweetest flowers and herbs to give to her love.
“I live deep in a bamboo grove and never see the sky.
The road was hard and dangerous – I was the late one.
“I stand on the mountain exposed and alone,
The clouds are a land of shifting shapes beneath my feet.
Vast is the darkness, yes, daylight benighted –
A breeze from the east, the spirits bring rain.
Stay with me, Spirit Adorned, and find such ease you’ll forget your home.
Once I am late in years, who will make me flower again?
“I pick the spirit mushrooms in the mountains
Amid rock piles and spreading kudzu.
I am angry, Lord’s son, so hurt I forget I have a home.
You long for me, but find no time.
“We in the mountains love the fragrance of galangal,
We find drink in the stone springs and shade beneath cypress and pine.
Afraid to act you long for me.
“Thunder rolls through rain’s dark veils,
Hear the grey gibbon week and the black gibbon’s night cry
Against the soughing wind and the whistling trees.
Longing for you, Lord’s son, I suffer in vain.”
Translated by Gopal Sukhu and the Asian Classics Editorial Board in Songs of Chu: An Anthology of Ancient Chinese Poetry by Qu Yuan and Others (2017).
This piece was recently featured in the exhibition “Hung Liu: Control and Freedom,” on view at the Vicki Myhren Gallery from January 11 to March 24, 2024. See more from this exhibition at Hung Liu: Control and Freedom.