The Tang Dynasty poet Hanshan (cold mountain) and his friend Shide (foundling) are among the most iconic figures in the history of Zen Buddhism. Variously described as Buddhists, mystics, crazy hermits, Taoists, and incarnated bodhisattvas, the two monks have been immortalized for centuries in countless Zen paintings and stone carvings. (In Gary Snyders youthful days you could run into them in the skid rows, orchards, hobo jungles, and logging camps of America.) In Cold Mountain Zen the acclaimed translator Hiroaki Satothe pre-eminent translator of Japanese poetry in our time (August Kleinzahler, London Review of Books)has put together an essential selection of Hanshans poetry with insightful commentary that includes an account of Hanshans friendship with Shide by the renowned Japanese modernist Mori Ogai, as well as a humorous story of a contemporary sighting of the two monks by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. Satos selection of Hanshans poetry follows the loose arc of the poets life, from his days as a scholar and official with a wife and child to his reclusive retreat into the everyday way of no mind, far from the dusty world, just barely scraping by through the summer blossoms and the freezing cold with his calico cat in the mountain wilderness. These magical translationsinfused with sake and musictransport the wild simplicity and rebellious spirit of the Zen masters poetry into a vibrant vernacular for our times.
