The beautiful thing about literature is in the discovery of a writer or genre you may not otherwise have ever found, as a result of reading a "gateway" writer. One gateway writer for me was Jack Kerouac. The gateway artist can have a literary "six-degrees of separation" effect... I know it sounds cliche as everyone points to Jack Kerouac as an influence, but I couldn't resist his appeal to me as a man, if not a writer. My given name is a hyphenated french derivative, just like Jack's (Jean-Louis). Kerouac was a well-liked jock (football) in high school, while I was a mildly successful high school cross-country runner. His roots are East coast, blue collar. Kind of like me. It is no wonder so many people can relate to him. What I discovered through Jack, though, was not the somewhat sad life of the subterranean, but the influence of Buddhism on his writing and life. For me, Jack beget Japhy (in The Dharma Bums) who was really Gary (Snyder) from whom I "discovered" Han-shan.
Not much is known about Han-shan. What is known is that there is a fairly large catalog of poetry attributed to a Zen monk, who like many cave-dwellers took his name from the place he lived--cold mountain. Each of his poems tells its own tale, and it's up to you, the reader, to feel the quality of the energy within yourself.
Translated by many authors, the "snacks" below come from the book The View from Cold Mountain: Poems of Han-shan and Shih-te translated by Arthur Tobias, James Sanford and J.P. Seaton:
4
My heart is like the autumn moon
perfectly bright in the deep green pool
nothing can compare with it
you tell me how it can be explained
23
Despite the obstacles I pursued the great monk
the misty mountains a million layers high
he pointed to the road back home
one round moon lantern of the sky
The book from which these translations is no longer in print but can be purchased through Powells.com by following the link above. Han-shan's works have also been translated by Gary Snyder in his book Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems, which is still available.
Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!
5 comments:
Hi...found your blog via a comment you posted on a friend's site (Mike's Blender). If you hadn't posted about Kerouac in your most recent post, I may never have commented.
I too feel very close to Jack, as close as a brother really. I feel, Jack, like me, was already living a Buddhist life before he even knew what Buddhism was. It's just that Buddhism gave a name to it, and a little more structure.
Another thing that interests me about Jack is his constant struggle with wanting to be in the middle of it all and also wanting to escape from everything. His time on Desolation Peak compared to his times in San Fran. I always think of that when I'm hiking and get to the top of the mountain, I think in just a few hours I'll be back in the heart of Tokyo. Contrast.
Hey Papa Castaway,
Thanks for adding me to your amigos.
* Hugs *
A really enjoyable post. Thanks. I learned a little something today.
I adored this entry. I'm a fan of both myself. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this.
My original comment was going to be, "oh be still my beating heart!" - re: Kerouac & gateway writers & all that.
thanks everyone for the great response and thoughtful comments... this certainly is a tribute to what great writers like Han-shan, Kerouac and Snyder do, which seems to me that they identify and capture a vibe or feeling to draw out the connections bewteen participants in the human experience...
please stop by again!
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