The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan

Translation: Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt
Part One: Original Poems, Circa Late Sixth to Early Seventh Century

11

A handsome young man on a horse
swings his whip and points to the pleasure quarter,
saying, “I will never die.”
He has not yet taken a journey.
As the four seasons change, he enjoys flowers,
but one day they all will wither and yellow.
He can’t taste the finest cream and honey
until the day he dies.


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    • Steal Wool@lemm.eeOP
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      1 month ago

      Hey! Me too! Some poems hit better than other but I like the kinda silly ones too.

      • Treedrake@fedia.io
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        1 month ago

        Yeah for sure, I prefer his more non-silly poems usually :) Have you read the Red Pine translations of Hanshan? I have Tanahashi’s translations as well, but I tend to like reading Red Pine’s translation a bit more