Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China

I reallyreallyreally wanted to love these poems. I'm a spiritual dude who loves to wander through the hills and meditate beside streams, basking in the luminous beauty which abounds. I count Chuang Tzu as my lost grandfather and Whitman as my uncle. But I didn't love these poems. I didn't hear in them the familiar voice of my long-lost kindred. What they wrote about - yes, that was as intimate as my own hand, but how they wrote - or more accurately how Hinton translated it - was clunky and lifeless. Before I dwell on that, I would like to pay my respects to the immense amount of work and love which this book so clearly demonstrates.Hinton is, to me, another kindred spirit. We share similar views and interests, and in many ways this collection is the culmination of that - an offering of the poetry which has been the source of much inspiration and wisdom and sheer delight for him over the years. Translation is challenging, and to do so on the scale which he's done is a testament to his love for these authors. The Introduction and the smaller intros for each writer are little pieces of art themselves which demonstrate his knowledge and intimacy with not only the material but also their worldview, one which he does not study objectively as an academic but inhabits personally as a disciple. They are beautiful and illuminating.At the back there's also Notes to the individual poems along with a section on Key Terms which helps clarify the poems, the former in their historical and cultural context and the latter in terms of their philosophical context. Again, much work and helpful in engeging more deeply with these authors and their worldviews.Because Hinton has managed to give voice to these authors and their views in a robust manner, giving us a glimpse into their world, this collection is highly commendable. Especially at this time of supreme alienation from both the natural and the spiritual world which all developed countries are confronted with, the messages contained herein are much needed.Despite this, the actual translations struck me as painful and awkward. I enjoyed few poems in the collection at the level of poetry. I enjoyed all at the level of being able to connect to ancient figures and their lives - troubled, serene, sorrowful, conflicted.In terms of style, awkward enjambments abound. He uses clunky phrases when simple ones would do just as well. There's little sense of lyricism or rhythm. In terms of conveying directly what the authors intended - at least as far as I could descry, he does not usually succeed. One example of this from the Li Po section shows the awkwardness of his style:Alone, searching for blue-lotus roofs, / I set out from city gates. Soon, frost / clear, East-Forest temple bells call out, / Tiger Creek’s moon bright in pale water. / Heaven’s fragrance everywhere pure / emptiness, heaven’s music endless, / I sit silent. It’s still, the entire Buddha- / realm in a hair’s-breadth, mind-depths / all bottomless clarity, in which vast / kalpas begin and end out of nowhere.Rather than filling me with a sense of mystic rapture, I feel appalled at how opaque and clunky the language is. I feel like, perhaps, he chose to be too faithful to the Chinese and lost the heart of what was being communicated. Many of the other poems in the Li Po section come-off as similarly clunky and lifeless, rather than exuding the vitality and playfulness for which he's so renowned. The other poets suffer a similar fate.There are some good poems in the collection and some good lines, like this one:gaze deep into wind and cloud / and you know this realm utterlyBut even this suffers from lyrical constipation. As a point of reference for a translation which does an excellent job of conveying the spirit of the author and his words, I would suggest looking at Sky Above, Great Wind by Tanahashi.If you're looking for a doorway to these men and their lives, though, this book provides a good one, but if you're looking for a book to capture and express their poetic genius, look elsewhere.

Bought this because I was interested in Classical Chinese poetry and finding it myself was hit and miss. I used it as a way to find books by the poets I liked. I got interested in the poems by reading David Budbill, who tried to emulate their lifestyle and mentions them a lot in his own works. If you are at all interested in this kind of poetry, this is a fine place to start.

These Taoist, early 5th century poems are a gift to anyone who has had an experience of what Thich Nhat Hanh calls interbeing, and who wants to spend more time in that place where we can merge deeply into the natural world that we have disconnected ourselves from.It's for others to say if Hinson's translations are "accurate" (apparently some have criticized them for all sounding as if written by the same person). From a spiritual or poetic point of view it would scarcely matter if they were all written by Hinson. They are stunningly beautiful, and we sorely need what they can evoke in us. They open us to another way of being in the world that allows us to be more in tune with reality, because it frees us from the limitations of our conditioned minds and loosens the tight boundaries we have erected between ourselves and the rest of creation. Thank you, David Hinson and Mountain Home, for creating this space for us.

This is pure nature poetry, by which I mean that everything is the thing itself, not a symbol or metaphor. It has a Zen feel. The poems, most of which are short, paint a picture of a scene and invoke shifting moods. They range from the 4th century to the 13th century, and there is an interesting introduction and map of the region where the poets lived, and a short commentary in each chapter about what is known about the poet and the themes of his poetry. It is nice to have on your coffee table or bedside, not stashed on a shelf! A couple of these poems, read slowly and savored, will help you unwind. They are very beautiful.

This is a translation of selected poems of the poets of the classical Chinese Rivers and Mountains tradition. The selection of authors is satisfyingly wide. The poems are arranged by author, in chronological order. The translator provides a short introduction to each author which is somewhat helpful. I cannot speak to the adequacy as such of the translations, but Hinton's translations here and in other books of his strike me as clear, simple, free of affectations, and good poetry in English. They also preserve a sense of the differences among the authors, so that the English versions don't come out sounding like they were all written by the same person. The footnotes are helpful. I found this a very satisfying anthology, and recommend it highly.

I really enjoy this book for it's wide selection of poems from many famous poets of China.

I have to agree with another reviewer that the translator, David Hinton, tends to make all his poets speak in one voice. It is a fine voice, but does not fully respect the differences among the originals. (I object also to the over-frequent use of enjambment, much rarer in Chinese poetry than the translations imply.) That much said, I am grateful for this book.

Hinton is an incredible translator and commentator

This is one of the best books I've read, some of the poems are amazingly spiritual and capture the awesomeness of life and nature. I'm finding new poets to buy their books as well from this anthology.

Great service and wonderful book!