What?
108 Sŏn Poems

by Ko Un

Translated by Kim Young-Moo and Brother Anthony of Taizé


Table of Contents

Echo
The owl
Baby
Blind Aniruddha
Walking down a mountain
Beef
Three names
Bushmen
Testing
Beyond
Deep feelings
The monk Kyŏnghŏ
Broad daylight
A smile
Clothes
A drunkard
The Lotus Sutra
Sitting
An alley
Moon at midday
A temple’s main hall
The master’s scroll
A rainbow
South and North
Meditation room
Late summer
A sudden shower
Idle talk
A friend
Gleaning
Bar by a road junction
Dayfly
A phantom
A rosary
The moon
One word
Lepers
Master Pojo of Koryŏ
A green frog
In your bosom
Cuckoo
A smile
The horizon
Mountain is mountain
Mountaintop
Faraway lights
Ripples
Baby magpies
Asking the way
Blue skies
In a tiny prison cell
A lion
The path
A certain bird
The wash
P’algong Mountain
The wind
One day
Simply
Steak
In daylight
Chongno Street
Old Buddha
A stone in a field-road
Reeds in Cheju Island
Moon
Odae Mountain
Spring dreams
A green frog
Ripples
Heavy rain
Weaklings
Wind
Leaving home
A hermit
Words I like
Mosquito
Han Shan and Shih Te
The women of Majŏng
A new Way
House
A single word
Summer
A shooting star
An autumn night
Today
Earthworm
A bowl of rowan tea
One little kid
Slamming the door
Friends
Late one night
Why kill?
Birthplace
A moonlit night
A moonless night
A nap
One fly
Wild boars
Harsh training
The pole star
Tripitaka Koreana
Ananda
Records of the Transmission of the Lamp
A letter
Yeh Fu
Pig
Parting