The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain

This definitive translation of Han Shans poetry appears in a bilingual Chinese-English format. Included are extensive notes, a preface by renowned translator Red Pine, a findings list, and photographs of the cave and surrounding area where Han Shan (“Cold Mountain”) lived.

Cold Mountain is one of the most revered poets in China. He was a Taoist/Buddhist hermit who begged for food at temples, often sang and drank with cowherds, and became an immortal figure in the history of Chinese literature and Zen. His poems were written twelve-hundred years ago on the rocks, trees, and temple walls of Chinas Tientai Mountains. This revised edition also includes poems by Han Shans colleagues, Pickup (Shih-te) and Big Stick (Feng-kan), translated here for the first time.

As Red Pine begins his Preface, “If Chinas literary critics were put in charge of organizing a tea for their countrys greatest poets of the past, Cold Mountain would not be on many invitation lists. Yet no other poet occupies the altars of Chinas temples and shines, where his statue often stands alongside immortals and bodhisattvas. He is equally revered in Korea and Japan. And when Jack Kerouac dedicated The Dharma Bums to him in 1958, Cold Mountain became the guardian angel of a generation of Westerners as well.”

Reviews of Red Pine's Collected Songs of Cold Mountain:

”The translators preface describes his rendition of the life of Cold Mountain, offering an excellent historical and philosophical context for the simple yet profound poems attributed to the poet."—Library Journal

“These are poems one must taste fully and drink whole... The poems of Han-shan read like a journal or memoir, and they often work as Zen koans, challenging the mind to go beyond the words and reason.”—Parabola

“Red Pine... has given us the first full collection of Han Shans songs in an idiom that is clear, graceful, and neutral enough to last... His translations are accurate and mirror the music of the originals... The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain is a considerable performance and a truly valuable book. Thanks to Copper Canyon's high standards of bookmaking, it is beautiful to hold and behold; thanks to Red Pines care, it will survive as the definitive text of Han Shan in English for many years. It belongs on the shelf of everyone with an interest in poetry and... should be opened often."—The Bloomsbury Review

“An exquisite publication that captures the Taoist practice of passionate attention, of being still inside and relaxed in the comforts and discomforts around you, going nowhere else... We discover this in the poets vision and spirit, in the precision and balance of the translators scholarship and heart, and in the elegant wilderness of the bookmakers art around them. On every level this is a beautiful book.”—Judges comments on awarding the WESTAF Award in Translation

“Cold Mountains colloquial poetry...sound like inspired raps—marvelously direct, with skips, jumps, verbal nudges and abrupt revelations... The volume is beautifully produced, with a long and careful introduction... This is an indispensable book.”—The Berkeley Monthly

“More than anyone else, Red Pine has made [Han Shans] spontaneous poems accessible to Western readers... In this new, expanded edition, invaluable notes and an extensive new critical preface provide a contextual awareness, not just for the poems, but for their sources in Buddhist and Confucian culture.”—Inquiring Mind

Red Pine is one of the worlds leading translators of Chinese literary and religious texts. His other translations include Lao-tzus Taoteching (isbn 9781556592904) and Poems of the Masters: Chinas Classic Anthology of Tang and Sung Dynasty Verse (isbn 9781556591952).

This authoritative, bilingual edition represents the first time the entirety of Cold Mountain's poetry has been translated into English.

These translations were originally published by Copper Canyon Press nearly twenty years ago. Now, significantly revised and expanded, the collection also includes a new preface by the translator, Red Pine, whose accompanying notes are at once scholarly, accessible, and entertaining. Also included for the first time are poems by two of Cold Mountain's colleagues.

Legendary for his clarity, directness, and lack of pretension, the eight-century hermit-poet Cold Mountain (Han Shan) is a major figure in the history of Chinese literature and has been a profound influence on writers and readers worldwide. Writers such as Charles Frazier and Gary Snyder studied his poetry, and Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums is dedicated "to Han Shan."

1.B

storied cliffs were the fortune I cast

bird trails beyond human tracks

what surrounds my yard

white clouds nesting dark rocks

I've lived here quite a few years

and always seen the spring-water change

tell those people with tripods and bells

empty names are no damn good

71.

someone sits in a mountain gorge

cloud robe sunset tassels

handful of fragrances he'd share

the road is long and hard

regretful and doubtful

old and unaccomplished

the crowd calls him crippled

he stands alone steadfast

205.

my place is on Cold Mountain

perched on a cliff beyond the circuit of affliction

images leave no trace when they vanish

I roam the whole galaxy from here

lights and shadows flash across my mind

not one dharma comes before me

since I found the magic pearl

I can go anywhere everywhere it's perfect

Cold Mountain

A mountain man lives under thatch

before his gate carts and horses are rare

the forest is quiet but partial to birds

the streams are wide and home to fish

with his son he picks wild fruit

with his wife he hoes between rocks

what does he have at home

a shelf full of nothing but books