To Record an Old Poem, in Cursive Script

瀯代于右任粷書《泎緶疗》焈
In his youth, Yu Youren was an ardent student of the stele school, practicing calligraphy from the Northern dynasties (386–581). He then advocated standardizing the three different systems in cursive script types, namely the clerical-cursive, the cursive, and the wildcursive.

According to his own statement, starting in middle age, he memorized one character a day in various cursive script types, and with determination he managed to learn all in two to three years. His standard cursive script has been influential in Taiwan.

Below is a poem that Yu Youren composed in 1945 and rewrote in the early 1960s for a close friend. Naturally written in his standard cursive script, it expresses sadness for being in the wrong time and place during political chaos.

The Chinese transcription below corresponds to the calligraphy, which reads from top to bottom and right to left:

翫牧河山所未溔ô ?渡江亡命
作春秋。今年偶澹勞工節ô ?做
炮孤兒已白染。公牻翿弟法家正
右任泼三十四年生日疗