ALSO BY JAMES P. LENFESTEY
Poetry
Earth in Anger: Twenty-Five Poems of Love and Despair for Planet Earth
A Cartload of Scrolls: One Hundred Poems in the Manner of T’ang Dynasty Poet Han-shan
Into the Goodhue County Jail: Poems to Free Prisoners
The Toothed and Clever World
Saying Grace
Low Down and Coming On: A Feast of Delicious and Dangerous Poems about Pigs (editor)
Essays
The Urban Coyote: Howlings on Family, Community and the Search for Peace and Quiet
Robert Bly in This World (co-editor)
© 2014, Text by James P. Lenfestey
Cover art © 2014 Brice Marden / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher: Milkweed Editions, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Suite 300, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415. (800) 520-6455 www.milkweed.org
Published 2014 by Milkweed Editions
Cover design by Mary Austin Speaker
Cover artwork by Brice Marden
Author photo by Larry Marcus
Endpaper map by Chris Costello
14 15 16 17 18 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lenfestey, James P.
Seeking the cave : a pilgrimage to Cold Mountain / James P. Lenfestey.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-57131-897-8 (ebook)
1. Lenfestey, James P.--Travels--China. 2. Authors, American--21st century--Biography. 3. China--Description and travel. I. Title.
PS3612.E528Z46 2014
811'.6--dc23
[B]
2014004199
Milkweed Editions is committed to ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book production practices with this principle, and to reduce the impact of our operations in the environment. We are a member of the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the world’s endangered forests and conserve natural resources. Seeking the Cave was printed on acid-free 100% postconsumer-waste paper by Edwards Brothers Malloy.
To Cold Mountain
and
Burton Watson, who gave me the gift
of Cold Mountain’s songs;
Bill Porter, who took me there;
Margaret, Mike, and Ed,
boon companions on the journey.
CONTENTS
Han-Shan Haibun
THREE Encounter with the Arch-Translator
FOUR Passage to More than Kyoto
SEVEN Beijing: The Biggest Bell in the World
EIGHT In Xanadu Did Genghis Khan
NINE Jia Dao and the Riddle of Sound and Sense
BOOK II
FROM BUDDHIST TEMPLES TO SOARING CRANES
TEN Buddhists for the Night
ELEVEN Breakfast with Confucius
TWELVE Speedways, Corn Roads, and Apple Lanes
THIRTEEN Ordinary and Extraordinary Graves
FOURTEEN Du Fu’s Sorrow
FIFTEEN Bai Juyi’s “Idle Droning”
SIXTEEN What the Old Master Wrote
SEVENTEEN The Soaring Cranes of Xi’an
EIGHTEEN Road to Heaven
NINETEEN First Adventure in Hermit Hunting
TWENTY An Evening with Dr. Hu
TWENTY-ONE Turtles All the Way Down
BOOK III
SLEEPLESS DREAMS TO DREAMLESS SLEEP
TWENTY-TWO Give It Its True Name
TWENTY-THREE Moon Music
TWENTY-FOUR Drinking Wine with Li Bai