Cold Mountain (9th century)
2
whoever reads my poems
must guard his purity of heart
his greed at once be modesty
flattery suddenly honesty
banish and be rid of evil karma1
trust and accept his true nature
get his buddha body today
hurry as if these were orders
16
people ask the way to Cold Mountain
roads don’t reach Cold Mountain
summer the ice never melts
sunup the fog is thick
how did someone like me arrive
our minds aren’t the same
if they were
you could get there then
29
pole your three winged galleons2
ride your thousand-mile stallions
you still won’t reach my home
it’s called the darkest wild
cliff cave deep in the mountains
clouds and thunder come down all day
I’m not Master Confucius
I have nothing to offer others
173
raise girls but not too many
once born you have to train them
smack their heads and yell watch out
beat their behinds and shout shut up
and before they learn how to work a loom
they won’t touch a basket or broom
Old Lady Chang advised her young jenny
you’re big but no match for your Mother
183
they laugh at me hey farm boy
your cheeks are a little rough
your hat’s not very high
and your belt sure is tight
it’s not that I don’t catch the trends
no money I can’t catch up
but one day I’ll be rich
and stick a stupa3 on my head
201
reading won’t save us from death
and reading won’t free us from want
then why do we like to be literate
the literate lord it over others
if a grown man can’t read
where can he live in peace
squeeze garlic juice in your crowfoot4
and you’ll forget it’s bitter
228
his mind is as high as a mountain
his ego doesn’t yield to others
he can preach the Vedic Canon5
or discuss the Three Religions6
in his heart no shame
he breaks precepts and flouts the Vinaya7
boasts a law for superior men
and claims to be the first
fools all praise and sigh
wise men clap and laugh
a mirage of flower in the sky
how can he avoid growing old
better to know nothing at all
to sit quiet and have no cares
246
yesterday I went to a cloud observatory8
and met some Taoist priests
star caps and moon capes askew
they said we inhabit hill and stream
I asked them the art of immortality
they said how could we presume
for what’s called the spirit sublime
the elixir must be the secret of the gods
till death we wait for a crane
and they said we’ll ride off on a fish9
later I thought this through
and concluded they were crazy
just look at an arrow shot into space
in a moment it falls back down
even if they do become immortals
they’ll just be corpse-haunting ghosts
the moon of the mind is so perfectly clear
how can phenomena compare
if you want to know the art of immortals
within yourself is the first of spirits
don’t follow Masters of the Yellow Turban10
holding onto idiocy maintaining doubt
267
ever since I left home
I’ve developed an interest in yoga
contracting and stretching the four-limbed Whole
attending intently the six-sensed All
wearing rough clothes all year
eating coarse food morning and night
hard on the trail even now
I’m hoping to meet the Buddha
283
one Budding-Talent Wang11
laughs at my prosody12
he says I don’t know a wasp’s waist
much less a stork’s knee13
I can’t control my flats and leans14
all my words come helter-skelter
I laugh at the poems he writes
a blind man’s songs of the sun
whoever has Cold Mountain’s poems
is better off than reading sūtras15
paste them up on your screen16
and read them from time to time
Translated by Red Pine
We may think of Cold Mountain as a state of mind rather than as an individual poet. The Cold Mountain collection consists of 307 poems written during the seventh through the ninth centuries. A notable feature of these poems is the relatively large proportion of vernacular elements they include, although they are by no means written in a purely vernacular style. Their Zen Buddhist orientation has made them very popular in the present century, which has experienced a worldwide resurgence of this sect of intuitive Buddhism. As such, they have attracted some of the very best translators of Chinese poetry. Red Pine’s versions are unique in capturing the spirit of the originals, perhaps because he comes close to living the life espoused in these crazy, but wise, poems.
1. The word “karma” includes the act (to be banished) as well as its result (to be rid of) and is said to be evil when its result is suffering.
2. The Chinese had three sizes of a large yet fast, and hence winged, warship that used oars and poles.
3. A stupa is a conical structure erected over the relics of a Buddha.
4. Coptis chinensis, a very bitter medicinal herb.
5. The Vedas include the sacred literature of Hinduism.
6. Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.
7. That portion of the Buddhist canon dealing with regulation of moral behavior by precept.
8. Taoists indicated their hermitages by the word “observatory.”
9. The immortal Wang Tzu-ch’iao (see selection 171, note 7) rode off on a crane to the land of immortals, while Ch’in Kao rode off on a carp.
10. The Yellow Turbans were a Taoist sect of the Han dynasty whose name later became associated with those Taoists whose practice emphasized alchemy and magic.
11. A Budding Talent was roughly equivalent to our Bachelor of Arts. Although the designation as an official degree ceased to be employed as of 651, it continued to be used with reference to men-of-letters throughout the T’ang.
12. In his Poetics, Shen Yüeh (see selection 22) set forth a number of prosodic tonal errors.
13. When the second and fifth syllables in a pentasyllabic line have the same tone, it is called a “wasp’s waist.” When the fifth and fifteenth syllables of the poem have the same tone, it is called a “stork’s knee.”
14. Referring to tones that are level/even and slanted/contoured.
15. Buddhist scriptures.
16. The Chinese used to place inside their rooms folding frames inset with paper or silk backed with wood to protect them from drafts.