Customer Reviews

The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain (Mandarin Chinese and English Edition)

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Twelve hundred years ago, Chinese recluse-poet Han Shan ("Cold Mountain") "fled to the woods to dwell and gaze in freedom" (poem 26), where he also wrote the 307 poems collected here "on trees and rocks and walls" (p. 9) around the cave where he lived. In 1974, while living in a Taipei monastery as a Buddhist monk, Bill Porter (a.k.a. "Red Pine") began translating Cold Mountain's poems.

Red Pine breathes new life into Cold Mountain. "I enjoy the simple life," Cold Mountain writes in poem 224, "between dark vines and mountain caves/ the wilderness has room to roam/ with white clouds for companions/ there's a road but not to town." It is easy to appreciate Cold Mountain's verse not only for its "spiritual honesty, poignancy, and humor" (p. 15), as Red Pine observes, but also for its rich, natural imagery. White clouds cling to dark rocks (poem 1), and old pines cling to crags (poem 256). Cicadas sing (poem 300). Yellow leaves fall (poem 300). "My mind is like the autumn moon/ clear and bright in a pool of jade" (poem 5).

In a recent interview, Red Pine compares Chinese hermits to "a mountain spring that brings fresh water down into town" (Tricycle, Winter 2000, p. 69). Cold Mountain is a good teacher, and his poems offer insightful lessons. He writes: "Trust your own true nature" (poem 2). "Rock sugar and clarified butter/ mean nothing when you're dead" (poem 8). "The moon is the hub of the mind" (poem 10). "Silence thoughts and the spirit becomes clear/ focus on emptiness and the world grows still" (poem 82). "Drop a ball of mud in water/ and behold the thoughtless mind" (poem 86). "Retiring to my hut I accept white hair" (poem 122). "The world is full of busy people/ well-versed in countless views/ blind to their true natures" (poem 132). "People who wander among clouds/ don't have to buy the hills" (poem 219).

Red Pine's collection will become an well-travelled path on your bookshelf to contemplative, Cold Mountain. (It is easy to understand why Jack Kerouac dedicated his DHARMA BUMS to Cold Mountain in 1958.) For those interested in meeting other Chinese hermits, I recommend Porter's ROAD TO HEAVEN: ENCOUNTERS WITH CHINESE HERMITS (1993). For some contemporary poetry reminiscent of Cold Mountain, I recommend David Budbill's recent MOMENT TO MOMENT (2000).

G. Merritt

It seems inevitable that something will always be lost in translation. At least I thought this was true until I purchased this volume. Not only does Red Pine stay true to the beauty of Han-Shan's verse, but the underlying Zen essence comes through loud and clear. I have heard it said of the Tao Te Ching that you can spend a day reading the entire work and a lifetime trying to truly understand it. This is also true for these poems. Short verses of simple construction that manage to capture something so vast. No, not capture. Illustrate. In several lines the universe is displayed before us, if only we pause to look. This edition is as much a must for any seek to understand Asian religion as it is for those who love Asian poetry.

The two-year wait for this reissue has been well worth it; the book is as well done as Mr. Porter's Zen Works of Stonehouse. I have all Mr. Porter's work and will acquire anything he publishes. This is what translation should be! The books are superbly annotated, as is this one. I've for years enjoyed Burton Watson's Cold Mountain translation, but with all due respect to the venerable Mr. W., Red Pine has given us a truly thorough and thought-provoking work that goes far beyond earlier translations both in style and content.

The themes of the poems are likely well known to the interested reader; what places this book at the top of its class are the annotations, the facing text in Chinese and the evocative, excellent photos by Steven Johnson that have graced other books by Mr. Porter.

This book is a work to be read and reread: in short, it's a keeper.

I have read the other translations. Red Pine not only got it right, he also got all the hidden messages. He went to the cave. This book is the Cold Mountain book. For readers that bought any other of these books, get this. I wish this book was a NY Times best seller. Reads well and is complete

Red Pine recently released a bookTHE ZEN WORKS OF STONEHOUSE, which includes a "re-working" of his translation of Stonehouse's poetry. The original translation was so superb(a clear window through which to both hear this great Zen master's teaching, and also to watch his daily life flow by and see what such a life is like) that I've regarded it for years as the l book I would ask to keep if I had to dispose of all the other 200+ books on Zen which I make use of. The new book has a version of the poetry which is superbly further polished -- genuinely improving the marvelous earlier version. Since THE COLLECTED SONGS OF COLD MOUNTAIN, is both revised and expanded this too should be a solid gold treasure as, once again, the earlier version of Cold Mountain's poetry by Red Pine was already superb.

Note: I assume this book is a reissue of the 1983 Copper Canyon edition of the same title, by the same author. That book included both Chinese text and English translation.

Cold Mountain (=Han Shan) was a T'ang dynasty poet who, though born wealthy and privileged, chose to live a hermit's life in the Tian Tai Mountains of southeast China. Here he meditated on Buddhist and Taoist truths: ... / it's so cold in the mountains / not just now but always / dim ridges eternally suck in snow / dark forests forever spray mist / ...

Han Shan's retreat from the world of "eunuchs in purple brocade" and other affectations has inspired many translators who also distrusted the charms of civilization -- notable Gary Snyder, whose partial translation is also celebrated -- but Red Pine was the first to produce a sensitive English translation of all 307 poems. Here it is, back in print at last.

Many have fallen in love with the Cold Mountain poems through the translations of Gary Snyder, Burton Watson, and others. But here is a revised and expanded edition containing all 307 surviving poems by Han Shan (Cold Mountain), plus some poetry of his two close friends Feng-kan (Big Stick) and Shih-te (Pickup). Would you like to see a photo of the actual cave Cold Mountain lived in? Or a view from his cave overlooking the valley? Those, plus a few pictures from the Kuoching Temple, and a regional map all fuel the imagination.

The Translator's Preface is sixteen pages of Red Pine's captivating investigation into the Chinese poetic tradition in general and the three crazy poet-sages in particular. I was drawn into a different world by his descriptions of Han-shan, Feng-kan, and Shih-te, and the wild antics of these three enlightened friends. Also, A fifteen page introduction by John Blofeld provides rich and vivid description of Taoist thinking and feeling, Buddhism, the tradition of mountain men, solitary souls, and peripatetic poets. This edition shows the poems in Chinese language on each adjacent page, and provides comprehensive notes. It's a book to be treasured.

Somehow Cold Mountain, limping along from his mountain, creates seemingly simple and clear songs ("called by others crippled / he stands along steadfast") . Wonderful footnoted by "Red Pine" explain deeper references to Taoist or Buddhist texts and humorous digs at Chinese officials. Cold Mountain avoids the dogma or sophistry of any organization or religion, and avoids the chains of strict poetic for:m
"I've made elixirs and tried to become immortal
I've read the classics and written odes
and now I've retired to Cold Mountain
to lie in a stream and wash out my ears".

He has no problem mixing Buddhist and Taoist metaphors if it will make his point. This book provides a nice refuge and finding of a relation to nature:
"Spring water is pure in an emerald stream
moonlight is white on Cold Mountain"

Cold Mountain also finds peace inside:
"we all posses a miraculous creature
with neither form nor name
call and it answers clearly"

To top off the book are 4 poems by Big stick and 49 by "Pickup" friends of Cold Mountain. A great book!

Sometime in the 8th Century, Taoist/Buddhist poet Han Shan ("Cold Mountain") wrote his poems on rocks, trees, exterior walls, and other surfaces exposed to nature, and - incredible as it seems - you can read their simple, broad truths today. Plagues, politics, storms, wars, cultural revolutions, academic elitism, decay, erosion, and the Chinese language have all been defeated in their propensities to keep them from you. Red Pine (the pen-name Bill Porter uses for his translations) has joined with Copper Canyon Press to give you Cold Mountain's 307 known poems in clear, crisp English.

What makes this edition so extraordinary is its careful layout. Each poem is presented with its original Chinese text, and Red Pine provides invaluable footnotes that give brief explanations of certain images and concepts found in the poems that might not be understood by many non-Taoist/Buddhist readers living in the 21st Century.

Red Pine's "Translator's Preface" and the late China expert John Blofeld's "Introduction" are both superb, illuminating preparations for the enlightening poems to follow. Red Pine also includes 4 poems by Feng-kan ("Big Stick") and 49 poems by Shih-te ("Pickup"), two of Cold Mountain's compatriots.

By the way, don't think these twelve-hundred-year-old poems haven't piquancy for us today. Human nature hasn't changed. Here are a few cautionary lines for us:

A state relies on people
just as a tree depends on soil
if the soil is deep it thrives
if the soil is thin it withers
and if its roots are exposed
its limbs produce no fruit
draining a pond to catch fish
gains only a short-term profit

And you'll find lines you'll want to remember long after you've read them, like these from Pickup:

The wine of wisdom is so cold
drinking it makes men sober

My advice: Slow down! Take your time! Soak yourself in several poems at a reading. Like your days, these poems are not to be rushed through, measuring their worth by items we can immediately identify and quantify. Like your days, these poems reward repeated thought and rumination - a looking back, a quiet, passive sewing of their insight into the fabric of your life.

I first learned about this poet, a Chinese hermit who lived outside of a Buddhist monastery, from a video called Cold Mountain made by The Center for International Education: www.thecie.org I became intrigued with Han Shan (Cold Mountain is the English translation of his name), decided to buy this book translated by Red Pine (there are several translations) because I most liked what Red Pine had to say in the video. I love Cold Mountain's down-to-earth observations on daily life and find Red Pine's notes deepen my appreciation.

A poem that I really like:

Two turtles aboard an ox cart
took part in a highway drama
a scorpion came alongside
begging desperately for a ride
to refuse would violate goodwill
to accept would weigh them down
in a moment too brief to describe
acting kindly they got stung

The translator's note: In the Lotus Sutra, the ox cart is used as a metaphor for the Great Vehicle of Salvation, with room for all. The turtles are a scurrilous reference to bald-headed monks and nuns. First among all Buddhist virtues is charity, but here its unwise practice leads to the loss of life. Such are the results of dogma, even Buddhist dogma.

I gave the book to a friend for his birthday and now I miss it. Guess I've got to buy another.