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Rating: 
Summary: Brilliantly translated Chinese Literature
Review: A brilliant book. Beautifully translated by Burton Watson, but the real focus lies not with him, but naturally on the poems of Han-Shan, a Chinese poet and philosopher. Han-Shan's poems are truly wonderful, and thankfully devoid of the pretentiousness that belies much of the literature from that era. Highly Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: "Cold cliffs, more beautiful the deeper you enter..."
Review: Burton Watson has always struck me as an eminently civilized scholar and as a fine translator. He wears his scholarship lightly, and doesn't overburden the text with extraneous matter. His many translations from Chinese and Japanese Literature are of uniformly high quality, and are well worth having as they are books one often returns to. What little is known of the eccentric hermit Han Shan will be found in Watson's brief, interesting and informative Introduction. The book then goes on to offer a selection of one hundred of Han Shan's 8-line poems which provide us with glimpses of the poet's life on 'Cold Mountain,' and his thoughts and feelings about reality, life, and the world in general. Here is a brief example, with my obliques added to indicate line breaks : "Cold cliffs, more beautiful the deeper you enter - / Yet no one travels this road. / White clouds idle about the tall crags; / On the green peak a single monkey wails. / What other companions do I need ? / I grow old doing as I please. / Though face and form alter with the years, / I hold fast to the pearl of the mind" (p.73). The first line here reminds me of a famous haiku by Santoka Taneda, one of Japan's best loved poets and also a Zen-man like Han Shan. A translation of it will be found in John Steven's marvelous edition of Santoka, who translates: "Going deeper / And still deeper - / The green mountains." I think that both Han Shan and Santoka were getting at the same thing. Stevens comments: "Deeper and deeper into the human heart without being able to fathom its depth. . . ." ('Mountain Tasting,' p.37). The human heart, yes, but also self, nature, time, reality, the mystery of existence, "the pearl of the mind," and, ultimately, the world of Buddha, or, for others, God. And deeper into the poems too as, to borrow the words of Robert Bly, "Baskets that Hold God." Although Watson's 'Han Shan' is an early work, it's wonderfully readable and his translations are of a quality that put him pretty well on a level with US poet Gary Snyder, who has also done a translation of Han Shan's poems. They will be found in his book, 'Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems,' and readers might find it interesting to compare the versions of these two very different translators, one an academic and the other a Zen adept. Both Watson and Snyder are excellent in their different ways, and either would serve the needs of anyone who hasn't yet had the good fortune to read Han Shan. Read him once and you'll love him and never forget him. He's a fount of wisdom and very human, and his poems can be read with enjoyment by anyone. And if you like Han Shan, as I'm sure you will, take a look at Santoka as you'll almost certainly like him too. In Han Shan and Santoka we see life and truth as reflected in two very special sensibilities, and we can all learn a lot from both. Details of John Stevens' book are as follows : MOUNTAIN TASTING : ZEN HAIKU BY SANTOKA TANEDA. Translated by John Stevens. 126 pp. New York and Tokyo : Weatherhill, 1980 and Reprinted.
Rating:
Summary: "Cold cliffs, more beautiful the deeper you enter..."
Review: Burton Watson has always struck me as an eminently civilized scholar and as a fine translator. He wears his scholarship lightly, and doesn't overburden the text with extraneous matter. His many translations from Chinese and Japanese Literature are of uniformly high quality, and are well worth having as they are books one often returns to. What little is known of the eccentric hermit Han Shan will be found in Watson's brief, interesting and informative Introduction. The book then goes on to offer a selection of one hundred of Han Shan's 8-line poems which provide us with glimpses of the poet's life on 'Cold Mountain,' and his thoughts and feelings about reality, life, and the world in general. Here is a brief example, with my obliques added to indicate line breaks : "Cold cliffs, more beautiful the deeper you enter - / Yet no one travels this road. / White clouds idle about the tall crags; / On the green peak a single monkey wails. / What other companions do I need ? / I grow old doing as I please. / Though face and form alter with the years, / I hold fast to the pearl of the mind" (p.73). The first line here reminds me of a famous haiku by Santoka Taneda, one of Japan's best loved poets and also a Zen-man like Han Shan. A translation of it will be found in John Steven's marvelous edition of Santoka, who translates: "Going deeper / And still deeper - / The green mountains." I think that both Han Shan and Santoka were getting at the same thing. Stevens comments: "Deeper and deeper into the human heart without being able to fathom its depth. . . ." ('Mountain Tasting,' p.37). The human heart, yes, but also self, nature, time, reality, the mystery of existence, "the pearl of the mind," and, ultimately, the world of Buddha, or, for others, God. And deeper into the poems too as, to borrow the words of Robert Bly, "Baskets that Hold God." Although Watson's 'Han Shan' is an early work, it's wonderfully readable and his translations are of a quality that put him pretty well on a level with US poet Gary Snyder, who has also done a translation of Han Shan's poems. They will be found in his book, 'Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems,' and readers might find it interesting to compare the versions of these two very different translators, one an academic and the other a Zen adept. Both Watson and Snyder are excellent in their different ways, and either would serve the needs of anyone who hasn't yet had the good fortune to read Han Shan. Read him once and you'll love him and never forget him. He's a fount of wisdom and very human, and his poems can be read with enjoyment by anyone. And if you like Han Shan, as I'm sure you will, take a look at Santoka as you'll almost certainly like him too. In Han Shan and Santoka we see life and truth as reflected in two very special sensibilities, and we can all learn a lot from both. Details of John Stevens' book are as follows : MOUNTAIN TASTING : ZEN HAIKU BY SANTOKA TANEDA. Translated by John Stevens. 126 pp. New York and Tokyo : Weatherhill, 1980 and Reprinted.
Rating:
Summary: When I'm totally fed up with "civilization"....
Review: I first read this Gem-like little book because Kerouac mentioned it in his _Dharma Bums_. I'm glad he did- this is one of the most profound and satisfying books that I've ever read. It is the book I tuck into my breast pocket when I'm totally fed up with civilization and just have to get away into the back country. This is the finest example of the writings of the tradition chinese mountain man hermit. Yet, the chinese version of the hermit was most unlike the western pattern. These men didn't reject nature and the natural world to find the divine- they merged with it. These were men who could live life with an almost dionysian intensity complete with wine and wise cracks. These men could cut to the marrow of what is truly important in life. I'm sure old Han-shan must have driven Confusius and the imperial bureaucrats nuts....
The last poem of the 101 states: "Do you have the poems of Han-shan in your house? They're better for you than sutra reading." I couldn't agree more.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful book of poems
Review: this book deserves to be read by anyone interested in the outdoors or eastern poetry. it is striking, pensive, simple, and beautiful, while allowing for rich emotion and endearingly opinionated topics. the contextual notes are helpful, and are not so heavy as to turn the light volume of poetry into a textbook on history or literature. an easy read for anyone.
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