
“Over the blue river, birds exceedingly white; On the green mountains, flowers about to blaze. This spring we view is also passing by, When will the time come for me to return?” 江碧鳥逾白 山青花欲燃 今春看又過 何日是歸年 Du Fu (712–770) was a renowned Chinese poet whose quatrain here expresses the wish to return. Shōgen therefore exaggerates that character (in the left column) greatly by writing it three times as large.