I don’t know that old age is coming, and wealth and honor are like floating clouds to me. I have devoted my life to painting for you, but I don’t know that old age is coming, but prosperity and wealth are like floating clouds to you. It comes from "Dan Qing Yin Presented to General Cao" by Du Fu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty.
Original text:
The descendants of General Wei Wu are now common people and members of the Qing family.
Although the heroic separatism is over, the literary talent and grace still exist today.
I learned from Mrs. Wei when I first started studying calligraphy, but I hated Wang Youjun.
I don’t know that old age is coming, and wealth and honor are like floating clouds to me.
Translation:
General Cao is a descendant of Emperor Wu of Wei Cao Cao, but now he has become a commoner and a poor family.
The era of heroic separatism is gone forever, but the Cao family’s rich articles remain in you.
In order to learn calligraphy, you first studied under Mrs. Wei, but you only regretted that you did not surpass General Wang Xizhi.
You have devoted your whole life to painting, and you don’t know that your old age is coming, but glory and wealth are like clouds in the sky to you.
Extended information:
Creative background
Cao Ba was a famous horse painting master in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. After the Anshi Rebellion, he became destitute and homeless. In the second year of Emperor Guangde's reign in the Tang Dynasty (764), Du Fu and Cao Ba met in Chengdu. They sympathized with Cao Ba's plight and wrote the poem "Pictures of Paintings Presented to General Cao Ba".
Du Fu enthusiastically wrote a biography of the painter with the title "Introduction to Painting". He used poems to describe the meaning of the painting, commented on the painting, combined poetry and painting, and was full of rich poetic and painting meaning. He combined the profound realistic painting theory and painting theory. The close-up of poetic biography is integrated into one, which has unique aesthetic significance and also has certain cognitive value in the history of art and painting criticism in the Tang Dynasty in China. This is a new contribution to the development of Tang poetry.
Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Danqing Yin Presents Cao General Ba