Scan barcode
Reviews
The Poetry of Han-Shan: A Complete, Annotated Translation of Cold Mountain by Robert G. Henricks
spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
4.0
This review is of the translation by Robert G. Henricks.
The current scholarly consensus is, as far as I'm aware, that the Cold Mountain poet was the whole or partial author of around 320 poems which have survived to modernity. Without further ado, here are all the English-language translations of the Cold Mountain poems (of which I'm aware), and their respective quality (from my perspective).
Or if you want to read a really funny story about some poets pranking some monks with a bunch of aubergine. That's also a valid reason.
Downside: Wade-Giles. Bonus perk: Porter doesn't always translate accurately, but his deviations from the original are usually marked in the footnotes with the "correct" translation.
Downsides: Wade-Giles; doesn't include the original Chinese text. Bonus perk: Henricks is surprisingly, and delightfully, bitchy about bad scholarship.
Rouzer also wrote a scholarly study on the Cold Mountain poet and poems, On Cold Mountain: A Buddhist Reading of the Hanshan Poems, which includes a handful of his translations of the poems. Each poem is presented alongside the original Chinese text. Rouzer's stuff is great.
The current scholarly consensus is, as far as I'm aware, that the Cold Mountain poet was the whole or partial author of around 320 poems which have survived to modernity. Without further ado, here are all the English-language translations of the Cold Mountain poems (of which I'm aware), and their respective quality (from my perspective).
ARTHUR WALEY (1954) - 27 poemsWaley's translation isn't bad per se, but there's really no reason to dig it up and read it unless you're specifically interested in Waley or the history of translation. It was, to the best of knowledge, the first English-language translation of any of the Cold Mountain poems, which would inspire Gary Snyder shortly thereafter, and then Jack Kerouac and a bunch of other white American men of the 1950s and 60s.
GARY SNYDER (1958) - 24 poemsSnyder's translation, Cold Mountain Poems, isn't great. It's a very limited selection, and has a distinctly Westernised feel. Snyder's was instrumental in getting Western translators interested in the Cold Mountain poems, but it's long since been rendered superfluous by other, more complete, translations.
WU CHI-YU (1957) - 49 poemsWu's translations were published as part of a scholarly article, A Study of Han-shan (59 pages). I'm personally quite a fan of Wu's scholarship as it stands, but I don't think it's necessary to seek out this translation specifically unless you're really just interested in the Cold Mountain poet.
Or if you want to read a really funny story about some poets pranking some monks with a bunch of aubergine. That's also a valid reason.
BURTON WATSON (1962) - 100 poemsI actually really like Watson's translation, Cold Mountain, despite its flaws; every translation of Watson's I've read is quite good, particularly considering the time period and associated limitations.
BILL PORTER (1983) - 307 poemsPorter's translation, The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain, published under the pen name Red Pine, includes the original Chinese text alongside Porter's English translations. Also included are extensive notes and a robust introduction. Apart from the 307 poems attributed to the Cold Mountain poet, Porter also includes translations of 4 poems by Fenggan (丰干) and 49 by Shide (拾得). At first glance the formatting of this version can be very confusing indeed, since Porter doesn't tend to use any punctuation in his translations of the poems, so I would probably recommend this primarily to a student or academic, and not someone who's just looking for something fun to read. The 2000 revised edition is the one to get, in my opinion.
Downside: Wade-Giles. Bonus perk: Porter doesn't always translate accurately, but his deviations from the original are usually marked in the footnotes with the "correct" translation.
ROBERT G. HENRICKS (1990) - 311 poemsThis is my personal favourite translation of the Cold Mountain poet's poems, and I've read my fair share of translations of the Cold Mountain poet's poems. Henricks incorporates excellent scholarship into his translation, and his bibliography is big—just the way I like it. Henricks unfortunately doesn't include the original Chinese text alongside his translations, but his annotations make up for it, in my opinion. The fact that this anthology, at nearly 500 pages, is (as far as I'm aware) the largest single volume of the Cold Mountain poems should be a rather obvious sign that Henricks is exhaustive in his methodology. In his introduction Henricks explains that he'd previously read Burton Watson's translation, but then discovered when reading the originals that Watson had only translated less than a third of the total poems accredited to the Cold Mountain poet.
Downsides: Wade-Giles; doesn't include the original Chinese text. Bonus perk: Henricks is surprisingly, and delightfully, bitchy about bad scholarship.
PETER STAMBLER (1996) - 130 poemsStambler's translation, Encounters With Cold Mountain, is not that great. He adds his own titles to the poems, translates with a liberal application of domestication, and is generally quite inaccurate. Don't bother with this one.
A.S. KLINE (2006) - 27 poemsKline's translation, Han-shan - Words from Cold Mountain, includes only a small selection of poems. These translations are... fine. They're fine. There's nothing egregiously inaccurate about them, but there's also nothing in particular that makes them stand out. I suppose you could recommend Kline's selected translations to someone who's never heard of the Cold Mountain poems, or possible even poetry at all.
J.P. SEATON (2009) - 95 poemsSeaton's translation, Cold Mountain Poems, also includes 20 poems by Shide and 27 by Wang Fanzhi (王梵志). Seaton includes notes, on around half of the poems, at the end of the book. It's okay, but nothing special, given the low number of poems included; I'd really only recommend Seaton's to someone who was already familiar with the Cold Mountain poems and interested in reading different translators' interpretations.
PAUL ROUZER (2016) - 313 poemsRouzer's translation, The Poetry of Hanshan (Cold Mountain), Shide, and Fenggan, includes all 313 poems attributed to Han Shan, as well as a selection of 2 poems by Fenggan and around 54 poems and a "record" by Shide. All poems are presented in the original Chinese text as well as Rouzer's English translation, and almost all of them have at least one same-page footnote, often more. The translation is excellent, and I highly recommend it.
Rouzer also wrote a scholarly study on the Cold Mountain poet and poems, On Cold Mountain: A Buddhist Reading of the Hanshan Poems, which includes a handful of his translations of the poems. Each poem is presented alongside the original Chinese text. Rouzer's stuff is great.
KAZUAKI TANAHASHI & PETER LEVITT (2018) - 313 poemsTanahashi's and Levitt's translation, The Complete Cold Mountain, has a lot going for it. The translations of the poems are clear and accurate; the original Chinese text is included directly alongside the translations; there are fewer notes than I'd personally like, but the quality of the introduction and appendices nearly make up for it. Tanahashi and Levitt have explicitly decided to divide the poetic corpus into three hypothetical and still anonymous Cold Mountain poets, something that's been subtext at the very least in all prior translations, but it was interesting indeed to see their deconstruction of the different styles they assigned to each potential poet. This one ranks up alongside Henricks's and Rouzer's translations, in my opinion.
More...