Customer Reviews

Poetry of Han-Shan: A Complete, Annotated Translation of Cold Mountain (Suny Series, Buddhist Studies)

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This is the edition for a reader seriously interested in Han Shan's poetry. Yes, the only other complete translation (by Red Pine) seems to have the virtue of elegant and readable fluidity, but upon consideration this is not the advantage one might think. Han Shan, while a master of poetic concision (dichten=condensare), differs from his more traditionally esteemed Chinese contemporaries precisely in that he is unembarrassed to express himself in "Tang colloquial: rough and fresh" (as Gary Snyder puts it).

You might be more likely to open up the latest issue of the "New Yorker" and read language like that of Red Pine, who writes "alas such a once-verdant bloom / is now a pile of ashes" for Henricks' "I sigh to see this luxuriant growth / Has today become a big pile of dirt" (#213/215). But the former is false (rushing easily over our ears with words like "verdant" and no punctuation) where the latter is true (capturing the simplicity, even bluntness, of Han Shan's art of contrasts, which consists of being at once philosophical, concrete, and plainspoken).

I also believe that Henricks' annotations do a better job putting the emphasis on the points that add to our understanding of the poet and his place in the wisdom traditions that animated his work. And unlike Red Pine, Henricks provides indices, so if you're interested in notes/poems referring to, say, the Nirvana-sutra, you can find them easily.

If you just want to delight in Han Shan's poetry on as many levels as possible, good Professor Henricks' version, whatever it lacks in glamour, is for you.

Like many people I first came across Han Shan in Gary Snyder's Rip Rap and Cold Mountain Poems (Cold Mountain translates Han Shan). Gary Snyder is essential reading for the new century (reread it recently when I gave a copy to my son) and his Han Shan is a compelling Tang Zen mystic. Wanting more, and suffering limited Chinese, I read Burton Watson's translations (it is worth searching out all of Burton Watson's work). This still left me with the laughing Zen mountain mystic Han Shan. Recently I read Robert Henricks complete annotated translation. If you think you know Han Shan from the Snyder and Watson translations think again. Reading the complete poems gave me a much fuller understanding of Han Shan the man, the frustrated scholar, the disappointed official, the man missing his family and friends, the quest for deep understanding, the Daoist as well as the Ch'an ... The wonderful comments and annotations that Henricks provided also proved essential to really going deeper into the poems, and they are a great example of how to annotate translations from the Chinese.

I found the translations themselves a bit wooden. They did not open up new possibilities for English, which is a potential of any translation, and I would have loved to have the Chinese text beside the English.

I plan to read the Red Pine translation as well, but the Henricks made this fall a little happier, deeper and more connected to me. Many thanks to the translator and publisher. Time to walk up into the mountains and sit in the mist and rain ...

The great thing about Cold Mountain is that he is transparent to translators. Arguing the merits of one Cold Mountain translation against another is like comparing a Gudo Ishibashi 2.8 shakuhachi to a 2.9 Mujitsu shakuhachi by Ken LaCosse. Both flutes will get you "there." But the journey will be different.

The same is true of Cold Mountain. Snyder is as good as Watson is a good as Red Pine is as good as Henricks.

Or like Dogen translations...

why sink a straw that floats on the water, when the moon itself rides in ripples beside the straw?