Gary Snyder and Poems by Han Shan 

When Zen arrived in the United States in the 1950s via Japan, it was accompanied by the poems of the Tang Dynasty poet Han Shan. In 1954, the American magazine Encounter published the translation of 27 Han Shan's poems by Arthur Waley (1889-1966). In August 1956, the renowned US poet Gary Snyder (b. 1930) published his translation of 24 Han Shan's poems in the Evergreen Review. In 1962, the translation of 124 Han Shan's poems by Burton Watson (1925-2017) based on the annotated version of Iriya Yoshitaka (1910-1998) was published by the New York Grove Press. In 1970, Watson's translation was republished by the Columbia University Press in New York and London.

Among these three translations, Snyder's translation was particularly popular among the young people. Snyder's interest in Han Shan's poetry began with a painting that left a strong impression on him: In 1953, there was a Japanese painting exhibition in the US. One of the pieces featured a man wearing tattered clothes and having long, disheveled hair. Laughing in the wind, the man held a scroll, and stood on a high cliff in the mountains. That man was Han Shan. 

Soon after, Snyder began translating Han Shan's poetry and published his translation of 24 Han Shan's poems. At that time, the Anthology of Chinese Literature edited by Cyril Birch (1925-2018) enjoyed widespread popularity in the US, with a large readership in almost every university. It included Snyder's translation of 24 Han Shan's poems, hence a testament to the reverence for Han Shan. Han Shan's poems did exert an important impact upon the mentality of the US youth.

加里·斯奈德與寒山詩

20世紀50年代，寒山詩伴隨著禪宗一起，經由日本傳到美國。1954年，美國《文匯》雜志發表了阿瑟·韋利所譯的27首寒山詩。1956年8月，美國著名詩人加里·斯奈德在《常綠譯論》雜志上發表了24首寒山譯詩。1962年，伯頓·華特生據日本入矢義高校注本選譯寒山詩124首，由紐約叢林出版社出版，并于1970年由哥倫比亞大學出版社在紐約和倫敦再版。

三種譯本中，斯奈德的譯詩在青年中普及最廣。“1953年美國有一日本畫展，其中有一幅畫里出現過一個衣衫破爛，長發飛揚，在風里大笑的人，手里握著一個卷軸，立在一個山中的高巖上，這就是寒山。” 畫作中的寒山給斯奈德留下強烈而震撼的印象。隨后，他開始翻譯并出版24首寒山詩。當時美國非常流行的《中國文學選集》，幾乎在美國的每一所大學都擁有大量讀者。這個選集將斯奈德翻譯的24首寒山詩全部收入，由此可見寒山受到的推崇。寒山詩對后來美國青年人精神形象的塑造產生了重要影響。