This Rare And Heavenly Creature By Han-Shan (Cold Mountain)a Rendering Poem by Ravi Kopra

This rare and heavenly creature
by Han-shan (Cold Mountain)

This rare and heavenly creature
alone without peer
look and it's not there
it comes and goes but not through doors
it fits inside a square-inch
it spreads in all directions
unless you acknowledge it
you'll meet but never know.

— fromThe Collected Songs of Cold Mountain, Translated by Red Pine

***

Standing on a desolate cold mountain
looking into the calm skies
Hanshan wonders -
who's this one who created
the world and everywhere wanders.
Sure no one was before him
so he's peerless.
Since he's everywhere
he never through doors enters.
You have no proof of him
so to know him
you have to be stupid
first to acknowledge him.