Late Return

A few quick, precise strokes create a scene of returning home by boat on a misty evening. A man in a wide-brimmed hat, grass-woven sleeveless cloak, and short pants paddles a bamboo raft, the image of a fisherman from southern China. Though the depiction isn’t detailed, the tree stems stretching out of the foreground suggest the boat is passing by the seashore on the way home.

Inscribed:

Returning late, a solitary skiff glides over the misty water.

—In the lunar Jiazi year [1984], spring, third month.

Shao-an.