Hanshan (poet) - Legacy

Legacy

The poetry from Cold Mountain has influenced the poets of many generations and cultures. He is especially loved by the Japanese, who know him as Kanzan. The following poem is by the Japanese poet, Ryokan, translated by Wandering Poet:

All day I walk in the forest gathering food

At dusk I enter my hut and close the door behind me

I kindle a fire with branches still bearing dried leaves

Quietly I read the poems from Cold Mountain

A rising west wind brings rain sweeping across the land

My little hut creaks and moans under the hand of the storm

But stretched serene upon the floor, I breathe and listen to the rain

There is not a doubt in my heart or a worry to disturb my mind

Hanshan was a sympathetic and important figure for Beat Generation writers Gary Snyder and Jack Kerouac. In the introduction to his translation which appeared in the Evergreen Review, Snyder wrote of Hanshan, "He and his sidekick Shih-te (Jittoku in Japanese) became great favorites with Zen painters of later days -- the scroll, the broom, the wild hair and laughter. They became Immortals and you sometimes run into them today in the skidrows, orchards, hobo jungles, and logging camps of America." Kerouac's The Dharma Bums closes with a vision of Hanshan, and at Snyder's suggestion, Kerouac dedicated the book to the fabled poet.