Authors
Topics
Lists
Pictures
Resources
More about Hanshan
Hanshan Quotes
37 Sourced Quotes
Source
Report...
Cold Mountain Son
Forever not change
I live alone
Beyond life death
Note: The following two playful five word per line poems are also literal translations.
Hanshan
Source
Report...
As for me, I delight in the every day Way
Among mist-wrapped vines and rocky caves
Here in the wilderness I am completely free
With my friends, the white clouds, idling forever
There are roads, but they do not reach the world
Since I am mindless, who can rouse my thoughts
On a bed of stone I sit, alone in the night
While a round moon climbs up Cold Mountain
Hanshan
Source
Report...
Do I have a body? Or have I none?
Am I who I am? Or am I not?
Pondering these questions, I sit
Leaning against the cliff while the years go by
And the green grass grows up between my feet
And the red dust settles on my head
Then men of the world come and thinking me dead
Bring offerings of wine and fruit
Hanshan
Source
Report...
I love the joy of mountains
Wandering free with no concerns
Every day I find food for this old body
There's leisure for thinking, nothing to do
Often I carry an ancient book
Sometimes I climb a rock pavilion
To look down a thousand foot precipice
Overhead are swirling clouds
A cold moon chilly cold
My body feels like a flying crane
Hanshan
Source
Report...
When you live on Cold Mountain long enough the autumns pass quickly
When you live alone you have no worries
When you leave the doors open no one bothers you
The bubbling stream runs forever
In the cave a clay pot boils over a fire on the ground
A wandering breeze stirs the fragrant pines
When hungry I eat one simple meal
And lean against the rock in complete harmony
Hanshan
Source
Report...
If your house has Cold Mountain poems
They are better for you than sutras
Hang them up where you can see them
Read them and read them again
Hanshan
Source
Report...
I brewed potions in a vain search for life everlasting,
I read books, I sang songs of history,
And today I've come home to Cold Mountain
To pillow my head on the stream and wash my ears.
NOTE: The following poem, translated by D. T. Suzuki, is not a complete Han-shan poem. It is lines 3-8 of a 14 line poem, numbered 271 by Red Pine.
Hanshan
Source
Report...
Since I retired to Cold Mountain
I've lived by eating mountain fruits
What is there to worry about?
Life passes according to karma
The months pass like a flowing stream
Days and nights like sparks from flint
Heaven and earth endlessly change
While I sit happily among these cliffs
Hanshan
Source
Report...
Among a thousand clouds and ten thousand streams
Here lives an idle man
In the daytime wandering over green mountains
At night coming home to sleep by the cliff
Swiftly springs and autumns pass
But my mind is at peace, clear and free
By now I need nothing to lean on
To be still as the waters of the autumn river
Hanshan
Source
Report...
How wonderful is Cold Mountain
Climbers are all afraid
The moon shines on clear water twinkle twinkle
Wind rustles the tall grass
Plum trees flower in the snow
Bare twisted trees have clouds for foliage
A touch of rain brings it all alive
Unless you see clearly do not approach
Hanshan
Source
Report...
I settled at Cold Mountain long ago
Already it seems like ages
Wandering free I roam the woods and streams
Lingering to watch things be themselves
Men don't come this far into the mountains
Where white clouds gather and billow
Dry grass makes a comfortable mattress
The blue sky is a fine quilt
Happy to pillow my head on the rock
I leave heaven and earth to endless change
Hanshan
Source
Report...
Cold Mountain is hidden in white clouds
It's peaceful to be cut off from the busy world
I use dry grass for cushions in my mountain home
My only light is the round moon
My bed is the rock beside the green pool
Tigers and deer are my companions
I delight in this happy peaceful life
Forever beyond the world of men
Hanshan
1
2
Quote of the day
Yet would we die as some have done: Beating a way for the rising sun.
Arna Bontemps
Hanshan
Creative Commons
Bio:
Hanshan was a legendary figure associated with a collection of poems from the Chinese Tang Dynasty in the Taoist and Chan tradition. No one knows who he was, or when he lived and died.
Most used words:
cold
mountain
clouds
white
moon
green
sit
road
streams
grass
mind
years
rock
pines
alone
Hanshan on Wikipedia
Suggest an edit or a new quote
Hanshan Quotes
Hanshan Short Quotes
Chinese Poet Quotes
Poet Quotes
Related People
Gary Snyder
American Poet
Ezra Pound
American Critic
William Carlos Williams
American Poet
Robinson Jeffers
American Poet
Featured Authors
Lists
Predictions that didn't happen
If it's on the Internet it must be true
Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words)
Picture Quotes
Confucius
Philip James Bailey
Eleanor Roosevelt
Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Popular Topics
life
love
nature
time
god
power
human
mind
work
art
heart
thought
men
day
×
Lib Quotes