Poem from Cold Mountain by Cold Mountain, translated by Red Pine
Today I sat before the cliff, sat a long time till mists had cleared. A single thread, the clear stream runs cold; a thousand yards the green peaks lift their heads.
White clouds—the morning light is still. Moonrise—the lamp of night drifts upward. Body free from dust and stain, what care could trouble my mind?
Among a thousand clouds and ten thousand streams, here lives an idle man, in the daytime wandering over green mountains, at night coming home to sleep by the cliff.
Swiftly the springs and autumns pass, but my mind is at peace, free from dust or delusion. How pleasant, to know I need nothing to lean on, to be still as the waters of the autumn river!
The clear water sparkles like crystal, you can see through it easily, right to the bottom. My mind is free from every thought, nothing in the myriad realms can move it.
Since it cannot be wantonly roused, forever and forever it will stay unchanged. When you have learned to know in this way, you'll know there is no inside or out!
Poem from Cold Mountain [Slideshow]

This excerpt is taken from The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain by Red Pine. English reprint permission provided by translator. All English copyright reserved by translator.

Cold Mountain [Han Shan] was a hermit in the Tang Dynasty, who produced hundreds of poems, which were later collected and associated with his name.

Red Pine [Bill Porter] is a noted translator of numerous Taoist and Buddhist poems and sūtras. Among his other works are The Diamond Sutra and Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits. From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Porter taught at Dharma Realm Buddhist University in the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, Ukiah, California.


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