Bicyclists
Aaron and Laura Beese reminded us of another adventurer to the center
of things who lived about 1400 years ago, Han-Shan, a Crazy Cloud
(wandering) poet of the T’ang dynasty (627-650) AD. Of Han Shan, the
American poet, Gary Snyder wrote: “Han-Shan, “Cold Mountain” takes
his name from where he lived. He is a mountain madman in an old
Chinese line of ragged hermits. When he talks about Cold Mountain he
means himself, his home, his state of mind.”
A
contemporary, Lu Ch’iu-Yin, Governor of the T’ai Prefecture where Han
Shan roamed wrote: “He looked like a tramp. His body and face were
old and beat. Yet in every word he breathed was a meaning in line
with the subtle principles of things, if only you thought of it
deeply.”
Take some
Han-Shan with you the next time you go to hike Lower Howards Creek or
the Gorge. His poems will clear your head. You can find Snyder’s
complete translations of the poems in
No Nature: New & Selected Poems, by Gary Snyder (Call # 811.54 Snyd)
or in Mountain Home: The
Wilderness Poetry of Ancirnt China, trans. David Hinton (Call # 895.1
Hint).
