Bodhidharma.
Musan
The whole of the West was his--and he
gave it not a glance The master, who sat so long in solitude,
purifying himself in flame Has left us a commodity at the close of
the
global exchange
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Translations from the Korean By Heinz Insu Fenkl
Master Cho Oh-hyun, who writes under the pen name
"Musan," was born in 1932 in Miryang in the 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 Holy Man. 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. His work
has appeared in The Asia Literary Review, Asymptote, AZALEA, and
Buddhist Poetry Review.
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 prose translation, Yi Mun-yol's short story,
"An Anonymous Island," was published in the September 12,
2011, issue of the New Yorker.