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A collection of prose poems by Musan Cho Oh-hyun (1932–2018), celebrated poet-monk of the Nine Mountain school of Korean Zen.
In this collection of prose poems, Musan Cho Oh-hyun, renowned abbot of Baekdamsa, one of Korea's central Zen temples, innovates on a millenia-old Buddhist literary tradition going back to Buddhist classics like the Biographies of Eminent Monks. Tales from the Temple not only presents instructive and amusing anecdotes from the lives of famous monistics from Korea, Japan, and China, it also depicts the lives and concerns of the common people-undertakers, fish mongers, fishermen, blacksmiths, and farmers-in a way that critiques social hierarchy and particularly monastic pride.
Praise for Musan Cho Oh-hyun
"Reading these translations of Cho Oh-hyun's Zen sijo is like shining a light on a carefully cut, many-faceted stone. The poems are concentrated, understated, and effortlessly colloquial, both immediately accessible and, paradoxically, mysterious. The Zen nature of the poems' inquiries and observations—with their allusiveness and open-endedness—bear up under many readings, defying prized Western rationality and yielding a surprisingly rich range of tones, moods, and insights." — Elizabeth Spires, poet and author of The Wave-Maker and Now the Green Blade Rises
"[Cho Oh-hyun] has created a new tradition of Korean sijo poetry." — Choi Yearn-hong, The Korea Times
"While some of the poems embrace the kind of open-ended imagery commonly associated with Buddhist poetry, Cho innovates in this volume with narrative techniques that engage the senses and the imagination." — World Literature Today
"In his Translator's Afterword, Heinz Insu Fenkl describes his astonishing encounter with the poems in this collection—from dream encounter with the poet, to the poems, then the poet himself. Extraordinary workings of the three-line sijo form into the spaces of Zen practice, the poems call us to see!" — David McCann, author of Urban Temple; editor, The Columbia Anthology of Modern Korean Poetry; professor emeritus, Harvard University
Karma! Your House is on Fire!
The Seagulls & the East Sea
Two Squirrels
Idiot
A Garment
The Moon in the Water
A Glad & Happy & Good Day
Close Your Eyes to See the Spirit
Master Mangong
Azaleas
The Tears of an Unfilial Son
The Old Blacksmith
Bulguksa Temple
Now that the Plum is Ripe
The Dog Apricot
The Cry of Wild Ducks
Master Musta’ Left the Mountain
How Much Does this Sound Weigh?
The Fish Market Auntie
The Bell
The Man Who Forgot His Self
The Undertaker & the Monk
Master Seosan
Not Linger in the Mind
The Otter & the Hunter
The Sand Pear Flowers
A Very Gracious Answer
Treading Water
The Green Frog
The Old Monk & the Thief
Sermon
Translator’s Afterword
About the Author
Acknowledgments