Peter Levitt: Hanshan: A Poet’s Heart and Mind




Upaya Zen Center's Dharma Podcast show

Summary: As a prelude to the “Poetry of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan” retreat, Sensei Peter Levitt shares many of the poems he and Sensei Kazuaki Tanahashi translated to English. Shulin Bergman treats us to some of Hanshan’s poems in the original Chinese. Thus, we can “hear what Hanshan heard in his mind when he wrote these poems and recited them.”  We feel Hanshan’s “pristine sensitivity” and “naked heart and mind” in poems such as:<br> The sound of birds chirping is too sad to bear–<br> I lie down in my grass-thatched hut. <br> Crimson cherries sparkle and shine, willow branches hang so softly. <br> Morning sun embraces the blue peaks, <br> clouds clear off, washing in the lake’s green water. <br> Who would think I could leave the dusty world, <br> just charging up Cold Mountain from the south?<br> <br>