Master Cho Oh-hyun
translated by Heinz Insu Fenkl
The Dance & the Pattern
Late fall afternoon, when death crack-crackles underfoot,sitting in a half-tub of creek water, I feel my forehead—the thrum of ironing sticks I’ve not heard since my mother passed.
Elm Tree & Moon
she a dragonfly’s wings,a filmy, rustling silk skirt,and I a peacock shaft,a mole upon her body
rise high, shine farrise high, shine far
Today’s Beaming
The harvest moon rises, and the clams, with bated breath,float surfaceward—and open wide their mouths to receivethe moon’s beams, revealing all their innermost flesh.
Master Cho Oh-hyun, who writes under the pen name “Musan,” was born in 1932 in Miryang in South Gyeongsang Province of Korea. He has lived in the mountains since he became a novice monk at the age of seven. Over the years he has written over a hundred poems, including many in sijo form. In 2007 he received the Cheong Chi-yong Literary Award for his book Distant HolyMan. The lineage holder of the Mt. Gaji school of Korean Nine Mountains Zen, he is in retreat as the head of Baekdamsa Temple at Mt. Seoraksan.
Heinz Insu Fenkl, born in 1960 in Bupyeong, Korea, is a novelist, translator, and editor. His autobiographical novel, Memories of My Ghost Brother, was named a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection in 1996 and a PEN/Hemingway Award finalist in 1997. His most recent translation, Yi Mun-yol’s short story, “An Anonymous Island,” was published in the September 12, 2011 issue of The New Yorker.
The Dance & the Pattern
Late fall afternoon, when death crack-crackles underfoot,sitting in a half-tub of creek water, I feel my forehead—the thrum of ironing sticks I’ve not heard since my mother passed.
Elm Tree & Moon
she a dragonfly’s wings,a filmy, rustling silk skirt,and I a peacock shaft,a mole upon her body
rise high, shine farrise high, shine far
Today’s Beaming
The harvest moon rises, and the clams, with bated breath,float surfaceward—and open wide their mouths to receivethe moon’s beams, revealing all their innermost flesh.
Master Cho Oh-hyun, who writes under the pen name “Musan,” was born in 1932 in Miryang in South Gyeongsang Province of Korea. He has lived in the mountains since he became a novice monk at the age of seven. Over the years he has written over a hundred poems, including many in sijo form. In 2007 he received the Cheong Chi-yong Literary Award for his book Distant HolyMan. The lineage holder of the Mt. Gaji school of Korean Nine Mountains Zen, he is in retreat as the head of Baekdamsa Temple at Mt. Seoraksan.
Heinz Insu Fenkl, born in 1960 in Bupyeong, Korea, is a novelist, translator, and editor. His autobiographical novel, Memories of My Ghost Brother, was named a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection in 1996 and a PEN/Hemingway Award finalist in 1997. His most recent translation, Yi Mun-yol’s short story, “An Anonymous Island,” was published in the September 12, 2011 issue of The New Yorker.