Page 3 - e-magazine391R

“Clearing the mind and sliding in
To that created space,
a web of waters streaming over rocks,
air misty but not raining,
seeing this land from a boat on a lake
or a broad slow river,
coasting by,
…”
------ Endless Streams

and Mountains

Slowly turning to the page of the first poem of Gary
Snyder’s Mountains and Rivers Without End, I
naturally dive into the book with the magical poetic
lines. I follow the poet and slide into that tranquil
space: the misty air and the humid soil, the
streaming rivers, the vague hillside and the big
clear ranges … All of a sudden, I feel like standing
on a boat surrounded by mysterious, magnificent
Chinese landscape.

Chinese landscape painting is believed to be the
“aspect of the Chinese imagination which has had
the longest influence on Snyder’s poetry”
according to Dan McLeod, author of “Some Image
of China in the Works of Gary Snyder.” The
aesthetics and philosophy behind Chinese
landscape painting has profoundly influence on
Snyder’s life and work since he was a little kid, and
his realization and understanding has been
growing deeper throughout his whole life.