Forgetting To Remember (Yan Li)

by Yan Li (translated by Denis Mair) Forgotten is the sound of legs crashing against green undergrowth and flower scent when I somehow strode into that special space Landscape paintings have long resulted from impacts that could splash up new dapplings of dark and dawn where value is dependent on sprouting succulence But I heeded the summons to come out of that painting, back to a bustling wharf, to turn away from surfaces of form and brush strokes back into life with its bruising encounters Literati artists expended so much effort to transform an invisible, inner past to something external and present before our eyes so we can enjoy the annually increasing value of its decay Exactly when I lost patience for this is now forgotten too I know before long I will also forget what I went through so fists of the marketplace could beat enough grit into me to create profitable art but there's a saying about this I'll remember all my life: 'The scar gets better, then the pain is forgotten'