The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan
Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt
Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century
11
A handsome young man on a horse
swings his whip and points to the pleasure quarter,
saying, “I will never die.”
He has not yet taken a journey.
As the four seasons change, he enjoys flowers,
but one day they all will wither and yellow.
He can’t taste the finest cream and honey
until the day he dies.
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6 Comments
Treedrake@fedia.io · 1 pts · 1y
I love Hanshan.
h3mlocke@lemm.ee · 1 pts · 1y
Hey! Me too! Some poems hit better than other but I like the kinda silly ones too.
Treedrake@fedia.io · 1 pts · 1y
Yeah for sure, I prefer his more non-silly poems usually :) Have you read the Red Pine translations of Hanshan? I have Tanahashi's translations as well, but I tend to like reading Red Pine's translation a bit more
h3mlocke@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 1y
No, I'll have to check out Red Pine's!
Treedrake@fedia.io · 1 pts · 1y
Do it! If you're at all curious about Chinese poetry aside from Hanshan, and about Chinese hermits, I definitely recommend watching this amazing biopic of Red Pine as well which is available until the end of October for a small sum (definitely worth it): https://watch.showandtell.film/watch/redpine
h3mlocke@lemm.ee · 1 pts · 1y
Yeah that sounds rad thanks for sharing