In classical Persian poetics, the distinction between نظم (nazm) and نثر (nathr)—verse and prose—is vividly expressed through the imagery of pearls. Literary glossaries and histories describe nazm as “stringing words like pearls on a necklace,” while nathr is understood as “scattering the pearls.” In this tradition, each couplet is imagined as a luminous bead, and together—once bound by meter and grammar—they form a harmonious whole.

Deeply influenced by Indian and Persian art and literature, Han Mengyun reimagines this poetic metaphor in works such as “A Broken Verse I” (from The Pavilion of Three Mirrors), a manuscript-like painting depicting a severed string of pearls. By contrast, “Scattered Pearls” (ongoing since 2021) draws on the concept of nathr, the “scattered pearls” of prose. In this series of works on paper, the dispersed pearls evoke an open, spatial mode of expression, entering into a discursive dialogue shaped by shifting associations.