Product Description

The voices of fourteen eminent Chinese poet monks whose works span twelve centuries (A.D.700 -1900) are here presented both in the original Chinese and in English translation. The collection includes 136 poems divided into six sections with translator introductions to each poet and his work. The poets in this book have been chosen by the translators for their insight into the human condition and for the beauty of their poetic expression. In presenting the work of six very talented translators, including Red Pine (Bill Porter), Burton Watson, and J. P. Seaton, this book provides any reader, novice or expert, with an appreciation and understanding of this elegant and traditional Chinese expression of spirituality.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #227041 in Books
• Published on: 1998-11-01
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .65" h x 6.10" w x 9.02" l, .72 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From Amazon.com
Gary Snyder brought the Chinese Zen poet Han-Shan (Cold Mountain) to prominence through translations that struck a cord with Zen enthusiasts and back-to-nature mystics alike. Now Red Pine, Mike O'Connor, and four other translators have breathed life into the literary descendants of Han-Shan, poet monks who are most at home in misty hills, contemplating "crimson leaves" and "azure depths." Like its Japanese cousin, the haiku, Chinese Zen poetry conveys pregnant images in spare structures that cascade into layers of emotion and rich associations. The Buddhism itself lies offstage, the poems recalling more of Thoreau or Whitman than Hui-neng or Nagarjuna. The translations here pause and flow like the originals, with poet-painter Paul Hansen's renderings of early Sung monks especially brilliant, outshining even the celebrated Burton Watson's translations of the Tang poet Ch'i Chi. For that trip to your mountain hermitage or when simply hiding out in the backyard, you'll find sure companionship in The Clouds Should Know Me By Now. --Brian Bruya

From Library Journal
The witty introduction to this volume invites us to "take a walk with the Ch'an Buddha-ancestors, these cranky, melancholy, lonely, mischievous poet-ancestors." These poets, Chinese monks of the Ch'an (Zen) tradition who spanned the ninth to the 19th centuries, lived in intimacy with the physical world, many of them in caves or huts in the mountains, and their poems reflect a deep connection to nature. In the 1950s, Gary Snyder made the poetry of the Ch'an poet Han-Shan popular in the West; this volume introduces us to the writings of several others, most of them newly translated into English. The Chinese texts are included. The struggle to quiet the mind, even for these masters, is continually present?and from this struggle come achingly beautiful poems: "Flat Lake cold penetrates water-lily clothes/ the mountain by the lake is neither right nor wrong." In their haunting simplicity, the poems collected here remind us of our oneness with the environment. Highly recommended for all libraries.?Judy Clarence, California State Univ. Lib., Hayward
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sam Hamill, Copper Canyon Press
"These Zen monks, writing between the T'ang Dynasty and the early twentieth century and until now virtually unknown in the West, are among the exemplars of one of the world's richest and most influential literary traditions. The poems, translated by some of the most knowledgeable and talented scholars anywhere, are luminous and elegant in their simplicity, resonating with the wisdom of sages. This is an indispensable book."