Red Pine and The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain

Bill Porter (b. 1943, whose Chinese name Chi Song translates as Red Pine) is a contemporary US author, translator and renowned Sinologist. When studying at Columbia University for his doctoral degree in anthropology, he started to learn Chinese by chance and fell in love with Chinese culture. He has spent most of his time between China's Hong Kong and Taiwan regions, and has often traveled to the mainland of China as well. He has written a large number of books and travel memoirs introducing China's customs and cultural relics. His book Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits once had a wide-ranging impact in Europe and America.

In 1972 Bill withdrew from the society and began a seven-year life of Zen seclusion in Taiwan, China. He studied first at the Fo Guang Shan Monastery, and later at the Haiming Temple in Taipei. It was at the Haiming Temple that Bill first came into contact with Han Shan's poetry and took a liking to it. So, he started translating the Tang Dynasty poet's works one by one. In 1983 his translation of The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain was published under the name Red Pine. It was the first complete translation of Han Shan's poetry into English and caught the attention of many young people in the US. 

The cultural thoughts of harmony between heaven and earth, between people, and between body and soul in Han Shan's poetry have profound significance transcending generational and geographical boundaries.

赤松與《寒山詩(shī)集》

比爾·波特，筆名赤松，美國(guó)當(dāng)代作家、翻譯家和著名漢學(xué)家。在哥倫比亞大學(xué)攻讀人類(lèi)學(xué)博士期間，他在機(jī)緣巧合之下開(kāi)始學(xué)習(xí)中文，從此愛(ài)上中國(guó)文化。比爾長(zhǎng)期生活在中國(guó)的臺(tái)灣和香港地區(qū)，經(jīng)常到中國(guó)大陸旅行，并撰寫(xiě)了大量介紹中國(guó)風(fēng)土文物的書(shū)籍和游記，其作品《空谷幽蘭》等，曾在歐美各國(guó)產(chǎn)生廣泛影響。

1972年，比爾開(kāi)始了他在中國(guó)臺(tái)灣長(zhǎng)達(dá)七年的隱居禪修生活，先是在佛光山，后來(lái)在臺(tái)北海明寺。也正是在海明寺期間，他開(kāi)始接觸并且喜歡上了寒山詩(shī)，開(kāi)始逐首翻譯寒山詩(shī)。1983年，他的寒山詩(shī)三百首全譯本首次以“赤松”的名義公開(kāi)出版，這是寒山詩(shī)的第一個(gè)英文全譯本，在美國(guó)引起大批青年人的關(guān)注。寒山詩(shī)所蘊(yùn)含的天地和合、人際和合、身心和合的文化思想，產(chǎn)生了超越時(shí)代和國(guó)界的深遠(yuǎn)意義。