The Clouds Should Know Me by Now: Buddhist Poet Monks of China
Ed. Red Pine and Mike O'Connor
Somerville,. MA: Wisdom. 1998. Paperback, x + 211 pages.
Readers may he familiar with the Chinese Ch'an poet Han-shan through translations by Gary Snider and others. Ch'an transmitted to Japan became Zen. The Clouds Should Know Me by Now is a collection spanning the past 1100 years of poetry by Ch'an Buddhist monks. The poems in this collection are masterpieces of indirectness. If haiku appeals to you, or Chinese landscape painting, or Zen, then this collection will also.