...Index
Beyond Self : 108 Korean Zen Poems by Ko Un
Translated by Young-Moo Kim and Brother Anthony of
Taize
Copyright 1997
With Forewords by Thich Nhat Hanh, and Allen Ginsberg
Published by Parallax Press, 1997
Parallax Press, P.O. Box 7355, Berkeley, California, U.S.A.
ISBN (paperback) 0-938077-99-6
Echo
To mountains at dusk:
What are you?
What are you are you. . .
The owl
Midday owl
eyes squinting
can't see a thing.
Just wait.
Your night's sure to come.
Parting
Farewell.
Fare well.
Baby
Before you were born
before your dad
before your mom
your burbling
was there.
Walking down a mountain
Looking back
Hey!
Where's the mountain I've just come down?
Where am I?
The autumn breeze tosses and turns lifeless
like a cast-off snakeskin.
Beef
Everything turning into something.
The most disheartening of moments.
Cut it off.
Everything turning into something
while cows are turning into beef.
Three names
They're playing with Zen like children.
It's white! It's black! Quarrels too.
Let's call it quits.
Then
get up dusting each other off.
Once
for no reason
Chusa gave Baekpa
three separate names and said
If eligible people appear
later
allocate one of these to each of them
Sok-jon
Man-am
Da-ryun
Sok-jon went to the obscure Park Han-yong
Man-am to Song Jong-hon
and then came the monk Da-ryun.
One name
Man-am
now hangs framed in Paekyang Temple
where at midnight the night bird sings.
...other poems by Ko Un