Best Chinese Poetry
The Zen master and mountain hermit Stonehouseconsidered one of the greatest Chinese Buddhist poetsused poetry as his medium of instruction. Newly revised, with the Chinese originals and Red Pine's abundant commentary and notes, The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse is an essential volume for Zen students, readers of Asian literature, and all who love the outdoors. He was born in Los Angeles in 1943, grew up in the Idaho Panhandle, served a tour of duty in the U.S. Army, graduated from the University of California with a degree in anthropology, and attended graduate school at Columbia University. Red Pine's published translations include The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain, for which he was awarded the WESTAF Award in Translation; Poems of the Masters; In Such Hard Times, which recieved the 2010 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize; The Poetry of Wei Ying-wu; Lao-tzu's Taoteching; The Zen Works of Stonehouse (Shih-wu); Guide to Capturing a Plum Blossom by Sung Po-jen, for which he was awarded a PEN West translation prize; and The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The simplicity of the language describing mountain sceneries akin to individuality, journey, spirit and soul is immense."
"These are some of the most evocative Chinese Hermit poems ever."
"I am a great follower of Red Pines works and Stonehouse is the best I have encountered."
"I really enjoy reading these poems in the good weather months as I spend quite a bit of time outside--I live in Colorado in a Buddhist/bohemian town and these poems really fit in with the atmosphere here."
"I bought this new edition to give to a friend for Christmas and I like the additional front information."
"Took this on vacation and reading it every day made vacation sublime."
"Spacious, intricate, brilliant!"
"The same poems that are in The Zen Works of Stonehouse, just spaced out two for page, with a few words different, save your money, buy one book."
The classic Chinese poetry anthology in a handsome English-Chinese format. Poetry is China’s greatest art, and for the past eight centuries Poems of the Masters has been that country’s most studied and memorized collection of verse. For the first time ever in English, here is the complete text, with an introduction and extensive notes by renowned translator, Red Pine. Red Pine (aka Bill Porter) is one of the world's leading translators of Chinese literary and religious texts.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Probably the translations are very accurate but they didn't come to life in a second language."
"Those who have never read Red Pine's translations are in for a treat."
"Very nice to have a book written in both Chinese and English."
"Reliably superb translation, as always, from Red Pine."
"He can recreate the feelings in English that the Chinese poet was trying to express in Chinese, and this is a rare things in poetry translation."
"good price quick service as always Red Pine is great."
"I really enjoy this book."
The "rivers-and-mountains" tradition covers a remarkable range of topics: comic domestic scenes, social protest, travel, sage recluses, and mountain landscapes shaped into forms of enlightenment. The keys to understanding the elegant poetry of such masters as T'ao Ch'ien (365-427), Li Po (701-762), and Lu Yu (1125-1210) are realizing that they perceive no divide between the human and what we call nature, or between being and nonbeing, and recognizing that in Taoist thought existence is an ongoing process of transformation "through which all things arise and pass away."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"These Taoist, early 5th century poems are a gift to anyone who has had an experience of what Thich Nhat Hanh calls interbeing, and who wants to spend more time in that place where we can merge deeply into the natural world that we have disconnected ourselves from."
"I have to agree with another reviewer that the translator, David Hinton, tends to make all his poets speak in one voice."
"Hinton is an incredible translator and commentator."
"Saved my sanity.......need I say more?"
"I cannot speak to the adequacy as such of the translations, but Hinton's translations here and in other books of his strike me as clear, simple, free of affectations, and good poetry in English."
"Countless books titled "The Tao of X," or pop guides to Zen Buddhism consistently sell well in Western markets, and virtually anything aesthetically "Eastern" has the potential to be commodified. It's a cultural realm that holds a position in our imaginations as the embodiment of the exact opposite of traditional Western vices, in its focus on stability, balance, and humility. Throughout these poems, which span approximately one thousand years of Chinese history, personal experience, natural processes, and wordless wisdom lie at their very core. This affected the aesthetics of Rivers and Mountains poetry, which experienced a period of fixation on emptiness' role in the natural world. Meng Chiao led a revolution in Chinese art which suffused the contemplation of nature with a bleak fatalism reminiscent of the darkest tendencies of Greek tragedy. As a whole, this collection will challenge reader's preconceived notions of ancient Chinese art, while also affirming the common philosophical foundations that they spring forth from."
"They range from the 4th century to the 13th century, and there is an interesting introduction and map of the region where the poets lived, and a short commentary in each chapter about what is known about the poet and the themes of his poetry."