Red Pine and The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain
Bill Porter (b. 1943, whose Chinese name Chi Song translates as Red Pine) is a contemporary US author, translator and renowned Sinologist. When studying at Columbia University for his doctoral degree in anthropology, he started to learn Chinese by chance and fell in love with Chinese culture. He has spent most of his time between China's Hong Kong and Taiwan regions, and has often traveled to the mainland of China as well. He has written a large number of books and travel memoirs introducing China's customs and cultural relics. His book Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits once had a wide-ranging impact in Europe and America.
In 1972 Bill withdrew from the society and began a seven-year life of Zen seclusion in Taiwan, China. He studied first at the Fo Guang Shan Monastery, and later at the Haiming Temple in Taipei. It was at the Haiming Temple that Bill first came into contact with Han Shan's poetry and took a liking to it. So, he started translating the Tang Dynasty poet's works one by one. In 1983 his translation of The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain was published under the name Red Pine. It was the first complete translation of Han Shan's poetry into English and caught the attention of many young people in the US.
The cultural thoughts of harmony between heaven and earth, between people, and between body and soul in Han Shan's poetry have profound significance transcending generational and geographical boundaries.
赤松與《寒山詩集》
比爾·波特，筆名赤松，美國當代作家、翻譯家和著名漢學家。在哥倫比亞大學攻讀人類學博士期間，他在機緣巧合之下開始學習中文，從此愛上中國文化。比爾長期生活在中國的臺灣和香港地區，經常到中國大陸旅行，并撰寫了大量介紹中國風土文物的書籍和游記，其作品《空谷幽蘭》等，曾在歐美各國產生廣泛影響。
1972年，比爾開始了他在中國臺灣長達七年的隱居禪修生活，先是在佛光山，后來在臺北海明寺。也正是在海明寺期間，他開始接觸并且喜歡上了寒山詩，開始逐首翻譯寒山詩。1983年，他的寒山詩三百首全譯本首次以“赤松”的名義公開出版，這是寒山詩的第一個英文全譯本，在美國引起大批青年人的關注。寒山詩所蘊含的天地和合、人際和合、身心和合的文化思想，產生了超越時代和國界的深遠意義。
