Book review: Seeking the Cave, by James Lenfestey
Cold Mountain Cave may sound like a mythical staple of Chinese literature, but it exists, says poet and essayist James Lenfestey. Better yet, the cave once housed Lenfestey's idol: Tang dynasty bard Han Shan (which literally means Cold Mountain), who wrote the Cold Mountain poems.
by James Lenfestey
Milkweed Editions
3.5 stars
David Wilson
Cold Mountain Cave may sound like a mythical staple of Chinese literature, but it exists, says poet and essayist James Lenfestey. Better yet, the cave once housed Lenfestey's idol: Tang dynasty bard Han Shan (which literally means Cold Mountain), who wrote the Cold Mountain poems.
En route to the cave in autumn 2006 with pilgrims including translator Bill Porter, Lenfestey considers what a character Han Shan was. "He rode a white horse - like driving a Porsche convertible these days - and lived in the capital," he writes.
Alas, Han Shan lost everything in the 755-763 An Lushan Rebellion launched by a Tang general of that name. Cue Han Shan's retirement to Cold Mountain Cave..
"He lived off what that small world, and this nearby temple, gave him in friendship, food, and birdsong. In return he wrote a few poems, laughed a lot, and meditated on the conundrum of existence," Lenfestey writes.
Had it not been for an official who gathered the poems from rocks, trees and village walls into a book, the world would never have known the Zen-Buddhist recluse who wrote: "A blind boy aiming at the eye of a sparrow/might just accidentally manage a hit."