[.ca] The Clouds Should Know Me By Now: Buddhist Poet Monks of ... (ISBN 0861711432)

From Amazon.com:
Gary Snyder brought the Chinese Zen poet Han-Shan (Cold Mountain) to prominence through translations that struck a cord with Zen enthusiasts and back-to-nature mystics alike. Now Red Pine, Mike O'Connor, and four other translators have breathed life into the literary descendants of Han-Shan, poet monks who are most at home in misty hills, contemplating "crimson leaves" and "azure depths." Like its Japanese cousin, the haiku, Chinese Zen poetry conveys pregnant images in spare structures that cascade into layers of emotion and rich associations. The Buddhism itself lies offstage, the poems recalling more of Thoreau or Whitman than Hui-neng or Nagarjuna. The translations here pause and flow like the originals, with poet-painter Paul Hansen's renderings of early Sung monks especially brilliant, outshining even the celebrated Burton Watson's translations of the Tang poet Ch'i Chi. For that trip to your mountain hermitage or when simply hiding out in the backyard, you'll find sure companionship in The Clouds Should Know Me By Now. --Brian Bruya

one of my favourite books of chinese poetry:
this collection is an excellent introduction for people who get turned on by the idea of monks living in the mountains, writing poetry, sleeping, drinking wine, writing poetry, sleeping, drinking wine et al. i highly recommend it to people who love buddhism, poetry, or chinese culture. the added bonus is the chinese text. i've been so impressed with anything associated with bill porter a.k.a. red pine that i've bought all of his translations. the translations included here are better and in many cases vastly superior to anything else out there.

Shipshape and Unsurprising:
Middling collection of Chinese Buddhist poems; I didn't feel that there were any hidden gems here, not on the level of Han Shan. The original Chinese text accompanies the translations, however, which is something that I find pleasing, and presumably you will too, if you are into the language.

A wonderful book of poetry:
Wisdom Publications has done it again: another lovely book that brings out the best in an Eastern tradition. The tradition this time is the poetry of Chinese Buddhist monks, and in this volume there are a number of moving and sublime examples of their craft. The poems are presented with visual elegance and an unobtrusive scholarship that makes the volume even more noteworthy. My only objection stems from the organization of the book, wherein six different contributors each choose a poet or group of poets to translate and present. I am not knowledgable enough to know whether it is the fault of the original poets or that of the translators, but the poems in one section really fall flat, and another section is also somewhat below the high state of excellence achieved by the others. But really, this is a minor complaint. The vast majority of these poems will appeal greatly to those who are attracted to this sort of poetry, and the volume over all is very pleasing.