Chinese Buddhist Poetry

 

I'm reading The Clouds Should Know Me By Now (1998) first which is a collection from 6 poets. Edited by Red Pine and Mike O'Connor

Chia Tao is Jia Dao (779–843) on Wikipedia. His ordination name was Wupen, and later Wandering Immortal (Lang-hsien). Han Yu (768 – 824) was his poetry mentor. Su Shi didn't think much of his poems. An interesting story is the one where Chia Tao met Han Yu. He was riding a donkey into the market and kept trying out "push" and "knock at" a gate, and bumped into him. The story coined the phrase of poets trying to pick words as "push-knock". At 31 he abandoned Ch'an monasticism in Chang'an for the lay life of poetry and working in civil service. Meng Chiao (751–814), Chang Chi (712 - 779) and Han Yu and Chia Tao formed a group of poets. (I'm taking Red Pine's spelling over Wikipedia.) In China Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism are intermixed. He quested for poetic mastery and people who appreciated his poetry (chih-yin). He is compared to Wang Wei (701-761). He often wrote in the form of Tu Fu (712–770). I have now referenced 6 other poets in describing him. He wrote 404 poems. Pine translates 20 poems, neither of the short ones below.

The Swordsman
A decade long I honed a single sword,
Its steel-cold blade still yet to test its song.
Today I hold it out to you, my lord,
and ask: "Who seeks deliverance from a wrong?"

Falling Petals

Gone is the guest from the Chamber of Rank,

And petals, confused in my little garden,

Zigzagging down my crooked path,

Escort like dancers the setting sun.

Oh, how can I bear to sweep them away?

To a sad-eyed watcher they never return.

Heart's fragrance is spent with the ending of spring

And nothing left but a tear-stained robe.

I say 6 poets but one chapter says 9 monks and a guy, so it's not 6 different poets, there are 15 in total.

The next poet Ch'i Chi is similar, and it as the end of the T'ang period. He sees a leaf fall into a bird's nest too, like Chia Tao. I guess that's death entering the house, maybe not. Sometimes a leaf is just a leaf. 

Anyway, I really like this book. I'm putting it on my reread list after I read it, because I don't think I've gotten everything from it.