​​​​​FOR NIRVANA  

108 ZEN SIJO POEMS 

CHO OH-HYUN
 

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introductory by KWON YOUNGMIN

translated by HEINZ INSU FENKLE 

Associate professor of English and Asian studies at SUNY New Paltz.

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21

WAVES

Regarding the sutras deep into the night,

I look up at the dark night sky,

Listen, all alone, to the cry

of the distant sea-

The 1,000 sutras, the 10,000 treatise,

All just waves blown in the wind.

22

WHAT THE NORTHEAST WIND SAID-1

They¡¯re hauling it away,

they¡¯re hauling it away

The ocean¡¯s untimely red tide,

it¡¯s bubbling froths,

The mounted bandits of this winter night

are hauling it all way

23

WHAT THE NORTHEAST WIND SAID-2

At an intersection in Seoul¡¯s Insadong

a tall, shadowless tree

Roots in the night sky

branches in the ground

With a single sprouting leaf

it covers the whole of the cosmos

24

WHAT THE SOUTHEAST WIND SAID

Someone is keeping a cocky silence,

and this suffocation, shaking the parched sky, this whole body,

is disrupting the depth of my mid-day nap.

25

AMDU-DROWNED MAN

Ancient Rules for Everyman 3

Pull him out and pull him out-

the net is still empty;

in the ocean of Tripitaka,

where countless sentient beings have drowned,

A boatman sits asleep at the prow

with the sail furled down!

26

JOJU¡¯S GREAT DEATH

Ancient Rules for Everyman 4

The Buddha-I should have sought him out earlier-

is nowhere to be seen

The executioner¡¯s blade-that life-giving sword-

falls from an empty sky!

10,000 men have died-

while one goes on living!

27

GAESA ENTERING THE BATH

Ancient Rules for Everyman 11

Stop crying, stop crying, stop crying,

you mourning woman.

Life is the wind outside. And death?

It is a bend in the river.

This family¡¯s news, too-

that inevitable parting at the end of life.

28

CHUIMI¡¯S ZEN GONG

Ancient Rules for Everyman 13

Ask, and the askers of the questions

will all die(if they ask in words).

Far, and again near, in the broken house

that cast away the sky;

How many tens of thousands of people did you kill,

sitting there with a single sharp word of the Buddha?

29

BUDDHA

having let it flow-the water of the waterless river

having let it flood- the water of the waterless river

in the water of the waterless river, a log bridge floats away

30

CHILDREN OF NAMSAN VALLEY

When the white snow-covered winter passes

The children of Namsan Valley

Go up into the mountain

Where even ten li is unimaginably far

And carrying a meadow bunting¡¯s egg nest

They return

Having eaten moonlight.

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