A Subtle Meaning

The mountain air is lovely at sunset;

birds in flight two by two return.

In these things there lies a subtle meaning:

I would convey it, but I've lost the words.

-- T'ao Ch'ien

(from, Drinking Wine Poem 5; 

in, Old Taoist: The Life, Art, and Poetry of Kodojin by Stephen Addiss, p.83)

Portraits of Chinese poets, painted by Kano Tan'yu (1602-1674), commissioned by Ishikawa Jozan (1583-1672).  Jozan fought under Tokugawa Ieyasu and greatly admired T'ao Ch'ien.  He built his retreat, The Shisendo (Hall of the Poetry Immortals), in the mountains northeast of Kyoto in 1641.  The inscription above the portrait of T'ao Ch'ien is Poem 5 from the series, Drinking Wine.

Jozan was the inventor of the bamboo water feature found in many gardens.

(Both photos are from, www.travel-around-japan.com/k62-52-shishendo.html)