BetterMost, Wyoming & Brokeback Mountain Forum
Our BetterMost Community => Creative Writer's Corner => Topic started by: twistedude on July 02, 2008, 04:15:55 am
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http://sjowall1452.livejournal.com/2493.html (http://sjowall1452.livejournal.com/2493.html)--its much prettier over there.
Each man sweeps the things he hates
Into the neighboring room.
The coward does it with a sword,
The brave man with a broom.
Han Shan and Shi-de were two Tang (609-918--are you sure about that? No.) dynasty Chan (Zen) poets. Shi-de hung out at a southeast China monestary, and swept up the kitchen. Han Shan frequently kept him comopany, though he lived on Cold Mountain (that's what Han Shan means). There are many paintings of them, usually laughing up a storm, Han Shan with a scroll of some sort, and Shi-de with his broom. In the top painting, though, they are both asleep under a plum tree, broom and end of scroll still visable. Gary Snyder ([RipRap and Cold Mountain/i] ) has translated quite a few of Han Shan's poems, and some of Shi-de's can be fonud if you Google "Han Shan and Shi-de."
The poem was inspired by a mistake, which I don't think anyone will notice.