Awakened Cosmos: The Mind of Classical Chinese Poetry

David Hinton’s English translations really sing and are up there with the best, from an enjoyment standpoint. Here he explains the essence of what Chinese poets were saying in the context of the Taoist philosophy that swirled around Chinese intellectual and aesthetic life. Added a lot of insight for me. There are earlier books by other authors that cover similar ground that are worth searching out as well. But why not start with Hinton?

Excellent. Scholar's insights made accessible. Real insights. Clear understanding of the Taoist/Chan interplay and even insights to the original forms of the pictographs.

"Awakened Cosmos: The Mind of Classical Chinese Poetry" combines the extraordinary talents and erudition of author David Hinton with those of Tu Fu (712-770 A.D.), the greatest of the Tang period poets, to illuminate how poetry of that era reflects China's blended Taoist/Zen understanding of the cosmos. The book has 19 short chapters, each linked to a specific poem that marches in chronological order as Tu Fu moves from relative youth to near death. The chapters open with each poem presented in Chinese ideographs with English translations of those ideographs, followed by a more flowing English-language translation, and concluding with both background on Tu Fu's life at the time of the poem's composition and insights that the poem provides into Chinese cosmological thought. This new book is notable for probing the deepest meanings of Chinese poetry and thought in a decidedly abstract manner. At the same time, both the poetic translations and map-based place names are more literal than is often the case, and "Awakened Cosmos" would have benefitted from a terminology appendix. In view of these features, I would not recommend "Awakened Cosmos" for any reader first encountering Chinese classical poetry unless that reader has a prior acquaintance with either the seminal masterworks of Chinese philosophy or the cosmos as depicted and understood in Chinese landscape painting.

I have been reading David Hinton since about 2003, when his translation of the Tao Te Ching first came to my attention. But it was with the publication of Hunger Mountain, in 2012, that I got serious about him. These very personal meditations began to reveal to me the Taoist mind, both in the classical and a very modern sense. In 2016 he followed up with Existence, which took these meditations even further. After a while, one gets used to Hinton’s language- the “generative tissue”, “Presence burgeoning forth from Absence”, and so on- and indeed it is the repetitive use of the same language over and over in so many different contexts that begins to drill home the very simple but entirely elusive concepts of Taoism. He does the same thing in his translations- uses the same English words to translate difficult Chinese concepts, so that we begin to recognize, for instance, tzu-jan when we see it. With Awakened Cosmos Hinton has combined the genres of his exploratory/expository meditative essays with his work as a translator. To do this, he returns to Tu Fu, the subject of his first translation of Chinese poetry. He begins each chapter with the Chinese pictographs which make up the original poem, and a literal translation of each graph. Then he offers a “possible” translation of this poem. Following this, he develops an essay on the poem, including important historical context but focusing on the deeply Taoist/Ch’an nature of the mind of Tu Fu. These meditations take us into unfamiliar territory; we are not only conscious of mountains and rivers; we are conscious of the blood of war, the loss of life, the uncertainty of the future, in stark and unrelenting terms. More than this- we are conscious of the fundamental dialectical identity of mountains and rivers with death and destruction; the yin and the yang of good and evil. Hinton is revealing not only Tu Fu’s uniqueness, but also taking us further into an understanding of the implications of the Taoist understanding. “There is terror here in the very nature of primal consciousness, a terror scarcely mentioned in the Taoist or Ch’an traditions. This is Tu Fu’s greatness the way he carries Taoist/Ch’an insight into new dimensions, teasing out its most unnerving implications, implications others leave unexplored.” And this is Hinton’s greatness, to lay this out for us in such clear language.

For admirers of David Hinton’s work, Awakened Cosmos will not disappoint. That is also true for fans of Tu Fu, one of China’s monumental poets. Since the publication of Hunger Mountain, Hinton has been evolving a stream of thought that interweaves Ch’an Buddhism, Taoism, and China’s ancient wilderness poets into a narrative at once accessible and, no pun intended, enlightening. Having read Tu Fu for many years, it was an eye-opening experience to follow Hinton as he unzipped Tu Fu's mental processes behind each poem in the collection. There is much to digest here, regardless of one’s acumen regarding Ch’an-Tao. To truly grok Hinton’s stream of insight, read this book slowly; allow Tu Fu’s mirror-deep mind to penetrate your own. Savor.

A fantastic analysis of poetry that uses an entirely different ontological and philosophical structure than we are used to in the west, resurrecting as much of its insight as possible into the medium of our language to make it comprehensible.

David Hinton's writing isn't perfect. Sometimes Hinton gets a little repetitive or sounds slightly too academic. But Awakened Cosmos is still incredible and I recommend it without hesitation. Whereas many other authors, especially Zen practitioners, come off as way too into themselves and their own interpretation, Hinton does not. His rendering and notes on Tu Fu have the mark of a careful scholar and interpreter. He isn't a zealous believer, but a thoughtful guide to this important classical Chinese poet and philosopher. And that makes this book easily worth the price.

A radically new perspective on Taoism, Buddhism, and, most importantly, my place in and connection to the cosmos. Big stuff? You bet. This and Hinton’s ‘China Root’ changed everything for me.

Great Poetry - wonderful storyline to accompany it.

The book ends with:- "a refugee Tu Fu sets out without himself to wander a refugee Cosmos". As for anything seeking to explain "enlightenment/spiritual depth/salvation", there is paradox. Much here above my head and experience but I was constantly engrossed by the text. After becoming absorbed in these particular poems by David Hinton, other translations seem verbose and wordy, even full of redundancies. Myself, I will return to Dogen, where "our practice is perfect in each moment and yet we have a direction toward Buddha" - which seems suitable and more relevant to my own life, encompassing grace, mercy and infinite potential. I have other books by David Hinton, and will perhaps turn to them in time.

Brilliant . Sublime

Ugh. Reads like a thesis. Cumbersome read on poetics is a bit of a oxymoron. For every positive there is a negative. Do not fall into the trap if your own Ego, David.

If you’re a meditator working to glimpse that no-self seeing, so foreign to the Western mind set, Hinton’s books are a lifeline.