For Nirvana: 108 Zen Sijo Poems

By: Oh-Hyun Cho

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Synopsis: For Nirvana features exceptional examples of the poet Cho Oh-Hyun's award-winning work. Cho Oh-Hyun was born in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, Korea, and has lived in retreat in the mountains since becoming a novice monk at the age of seven. Writing under the Buddhist name Musan, he has composed hundreds of poems in seclusion, many in the sijo style, a relatively fixed syllabic poetic form similar to Japanese haiku and tanka. For Nirvana contains 108 Zen sijo poems (108 representing the number of klesas, or "defilements," that one must overcome to attain enlightenment). These transfixing works play with traditional religious and metaphysical themes and include a number of "story" sijo, a longer, more personal style that is one of Cho Oh-Hyun's major innovations. Kwon Youngmin, a leading scholar of sijo, provides a contextualizing introduction, and in his afterword, Heinz Insu Fenkl reflects on the unique challenges of translating the collection.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
Book Size:: 144 Pages
ISBN-13:: 9780231542432
Related ISBNs:: 9780231179911
Publisher:: Columbia University Press
Date of Addition:: 03/25/21
Copyrighted By:: Heinz Insu Fenkl
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: Nonfiction, Poetry, Literature and Fiction, Religion and Spirituality, Philosophy
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.
Introduction by:: Kwon Youngmin
Translator:: Heinz Fenkl