Wha tI'm Reading #26

This is a wonderful collection of poems by Ho Kyun (1569 - 1618), born an aristocrat to a noble Korean family, he spent his life wondering, and was executed on false charges involving treason at the age of 49. In his life he strove to understand it's meaning from the lens of Confucious, Lao Tze, and even the Chinese poet, Du Fu. A lens that saw the reality around him -- the humanity of man, the beauty of nature -- before dogma.

I love reading poetry written in other centuries within other cultures. The ideas remain universal in spite of the differences.


Sending Away a Visitor, Sitting Alone

Piles of sutras, the warm stove, and unbroken silence—
my solitude, as an Immortal's house.
The warm day brightens plum blossoms, and my steps—
a light wind seeps through the gate, fells willow flowers.

I've given up writing. The roof-tile ink-stone slabs,
long dry. I should heat Dragon Tea over the strong fire.
Don't say I have no guests in this isolated place—
it's quite natural for bees of the mountain to visit.
1611