月月开花日日红Flowers Every Month, Red Every Day

A square sheet, of Chinese roses. The stems, in ochre-green with small dotted thorns, cross and climb up the sheet. Three roses are in full bloom, washed layer by layer in deep red and rouge around golden centres, with several plump peach-coloured buds about to open beside them; the leaves are laid in blue-green without outline and veined in red-brown, turning this way and that. At the upper left a pair of small birds, brown-backed and white-bellied with dark eyebrows and white eye-rings, perch close together on a twig, one behind the other, calm and at ease.

The inscription at the lower right reads “Flowers every month, red every day”: the Chinese rose blooms through the year, and is called yueyuehong, “red every month”, a wish for peace and prosperity in every season.

此为斗方，写月季。枝茎以赭绿写出，细刺点点，自下而上交错伸展；月季三朵盛开，深红与胭脂层层晕染，花心金黄，旁有桃红花苞数枚，饱满欲绽；叶片以青绿没骨写成，叶脉赭红勾勒，正反俯仰，生意盎然。左上枝头小鸟一双，褐背白腹，黑眉白眼圈，一前一后相依而栖，以小写意笔法写出，神态安闲。

右下题“月月开花日日红”。月季四时常开，俗称“月月红”，寓四季平安、红红火火。