Gary Snyder(1930- ) is a kind of wanderer who walked or hiked all over western America. He climbed and walked all over the western mountain peaks, valleys and forests. His poems are a kind of record of his travelling and wanderings. The best examples of his wanderings were published in his anthology Mountains and Rivers without End in 1996 and he was awarded the Bolingen Prize. This anthology was started in 1956 when his new styled poems, including “Rip Raps”, were well received by the public and he became interested in Zen Buddhism. The poems in this anthology were inspired by an oriental painting which describes travellers and the endless road. He was much shocked by it, and the labour and trial to complete this anthology continued for 40 years. He began to think about this and at last, went to Japan to train in Buddhist Zen. He had stayed in Daeduksa temple, Kyoto, as a Zen trainee for 10 years or so. The accumulation of all these experiences, this anthology was born like a brilliant pearl.But his traveling, in these poems, is not mere wandering but a kind of pilgrimage. He went to the Eastern world to experience their spiritual training. The ideal personages he admired were the Buddhist monks, Hyunjang of China and Dogen of Japan. Both of them traveled foreign lands to search the truth, Bub. As the two Buddhist monks traveled over deserts and rough cliffs searching the truth, Snyder traveled the Eastern world and even experienced their spiritual world. This is not a mere travelling but spiritual pilgrimage as Snyder himself said. And these poems are not separated ones but a chained epic: these poems are like a flowing epic, Epic of Pilgrimage .
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