读画

The Reading of a Painting

本刊2000年第3期曾刊登朱纯深先生所翻译并导读的《读画》·文，本篇汉英对照与前篇稍有改动，作为附录附于正文之后，以飨读者。

Yuan Mei has this to say in his Suiyuan Notes on Poetry： ＂Artists believe in the reading of a painting, yet I can find nothing to be read in a painting -- What one reads is the poetry it bears.＂ The old gentleman was making a good point here. Reading means reciting, or chanting aloud the words to appreciate the meaning, so one must have the words, the text, before one can do the reading. As such, how can you read a painting？ The so-called reading of a painting, therefore, should be reading the poetry it carries.