Ko Un Poems

Now I am gazing
at the snow path that covers up what has passed.
After wandering through the whole winter,
I am gazing at this foreign territory.
...

There are stories.
There are people telling stories
and people listening to them.
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What a relief
you cannot live everywhere all at once.
Today, here in Diamond Cave,
there's no longer any reason to live.
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Spring. Everything's liberated.
The news of flowers
eases the poverty of this world.
Throughout this fractured country
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Transformed into arrows
let's all soar together, body and soul!
Piercing the air
let's go soaring, body and soul!
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A slower pace, a somewhat slower pace will do.
Of a sudden, should it start to rain,
let yourself get soaked.
An old friend, the rain.
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We put up a tent for the night
between Shigatse and Latse.
As soon as the tent was up
a storm broke.
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Never beg the wind for mercy.
Tall wild lilies and such
scented white lilies and such
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I've never been an individual entity.
Sixty trillion cells!
I'm a living collectivity.
...

For thirty-three years as a poet
I merrily defined what beauty was.
Each time, without hesitation
I would declare: beauty is like this, or:
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