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Bill
Porter
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ROAD TO HEAVEN: Encounters with Chinese Hermits |
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Translations
by Bill Porter writing as Red Pine
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LAO-TZU'S TAOTECHING: Translated by Red Pine With Selected Commentaries of the Past 2000 Years THE ZEN WORKS OF STONEHOUSE: GUIDE TO CAPTURING A PLUM BLOSSOM |
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ROAD
TO HEAVEN
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ROAD TO HEAVEN
Accounts
of travels in remote Chinese mountains, richly illustrated with photographs,
with numerous interviews of contemporary hermits illuminating ancient Chinese
approaches to enlightenment
Photographs by Steven Johnson and Bill Porter
“This fascinating book combines first-person accounts of meetings
with modern-day Chinese hermits with a wealth of historical information.” “Bill Porter's Road to Heaven is a brilliant essay on the
traditions of Chinese hermits, a startling reminder of how far we have
gone astray. It should be a part of any serious Zen or Taoist library.” |
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LAU-TZU'S
TAOTECHING
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LAO-TZU'S TAOTECHING
FINALIST, 1997 PEN CENTER WEST AWARD FOR TRANSLATION
The Taoteching,
written some 2,500 years ago by a man known only as Lao-tzu (“the Old Master”),
encapsulates the wisdom of Taoism. Red Pine’s translation of this most revered
of Chinese texts recreates the ancient poetry that has made the Taoteching
the most quoted book in the Chinese language.
Pine provides a breakthrough translation that is as informed as it is
beautiful. With great clarity and immediacy, he breathes new life into
the poems and corrects errors in previous interpretations. This edition
also presents the original Chinese text alongside each verse. Pine goes
a step further to offer for each of the 81 verses selected commentaries—from
emperors and scholars, Taoist nuns and Buddhist priests, poets and philosophers
— considered in the Chinese tradition to be essential accompaniment to
the text. Altogether Red Pine’s superior scholarship make his translation
the definitive edition of this timeless classic.
“Here, one feels, are the bare bones, shining brightly.... Highly
recommended.” Cover design by Scott di Girolamo. | ||
THE
ZEN WORKS OF STONEHOUSE |
THE ZEN WORKS OF STONEHOUSE
Stonehouse
has been called “the greatest of all Zen monks who made poetry their medium
of instruction.” Yet his works have rarely been available in English. With
this volume, now all of the hermit monk’s writing, including his major poetic
works, “Mountain Poems” and “Gathas,” as well as his most illuminating instructional
talks (delivered while serving at imperial request as abbot of a Zen monastery),
can be read in Pine’s superb translation.
“[The Zen Works of Stonehouse drew strongly on all my senses
... It is a splendid book, and I imagine that every Zen student will wish
to own a copy.” “Red Pine's ... translation transports us to China in the fourteenth
century, transfixes us in the beauty of the hermit poet's work, and demonstrates
the transformative power of a Zen adept's talk.” “Red Pine has done us a real service ... The copious notes that
accompany the translations, in addition to explaining the doctrinal background
of Stonehouse's writings, draw extensively on Porter's wide firsthand
knowledge of China and Chinese Buddhist life, giving them an engagingly
personal tone. And for the poems Red Pine has devised an unusual translation
style that not only captures much of the flavor of the Chinese originals
but at the same time works splendidly in English. All in all, an admirable
achievement!” This publication was made possible thanks to generous grants by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry. |
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GUIDE
TO CAPTURING A PLUM BLOSSOM |
GUIDE TO CAPTURING A PLUM BLOSSOM
WINNER, 1996 PEN CENTER WEST AWARD FOR TRANSLATION
Guide
to Capturing a Plum Blossom aims not at technical artistic training
but at the training of artistic perception: not how to hold a brush but
rather how to really see a plum blossom.
First published in AD 1238, this may be the world’s first printed book
of art and literature. Red Pine's delicate, graceful, and learned translation
of this historic Confucian work is the first ever into English, presented
in a fine bilingual edition.
“More than a landmark in world art history ... One of the very first
art books which helped artists develop the aptitude for seeing the inner
essence of various natural phenomena.” |
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BILL PORTER, pictured here with photographer Steven Johnson (right), publishes
his translations of Chinese texts under the name Red Pine. Among his previous
publications are The
Collected Songs of Cold Mountain and The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma.
He lived for many years in Taiwan and Hong Kong and has traveled extensively
in China. He lives in Port Townsend, Washington. | ||