Seeking the Cave: A Pilgrimage To Cold Mountain by James Lenfestey

Author:James Lenfestey [Lenfestey, James P.]
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781571318978
Publisher: Perseus Books, LLC

CHAPTER NINETEEN

FIRST ADVENTURE IN HERMIT HUNTING

The next morning, Bill led us on an expedition into the nearby Chungnan Mountains, where his own hermit-hunting journey had begun more than twenty-five years before. We planned to visit the Buddhist nun whose serene portrait graced the cover of Road to Heaven. We would not seek out the nearby Wang River hermitage of T’ang Dynasty poet Wang Wei, also nearby. Bill had assaulted that mountain redoubt in 1989 only to be arrested for his efforts; Wang Wei’s reclusive paradise was now a nuclear weapons facility.

POEM BY WANG WEI

in my prime I loved the Way

a Chungnan cottage in old age

when I want I roam alone

wonders wasted all on me

hiking to the river’s source

sitting watching clouds arise

sometimes with an old recluse

talking laughing free from time

(translated by Bill Porter)

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