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Questions tagged [ko-un]

Questions about the works of Korean poet Ko Un (born 1933) or his life as a writer. For questions about specific poems use [poetry] and [korean-literature].

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5 votes
2 answers
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What's the connection between millennia of time travel and waiting for a bus?

One of Ko Un's very short poems, translated by Brother Anthony of Taizé and available on the Brief Poems blog, goes as follows: Some say they can recall a thousand years Some say they have already ...
Rand al'Thor's user avatar
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5 votes
0 answers
63 views

Why does isolating "there" on its own line sound less emphatic in Korean than English?

I was reading Translator’s Note: Three Poems by Ko Un from the Poetry Foundation and came across this excerpt: We translated “명사도 동사도 다” (“all nouns and verbs”) as “all words,” which sounds less ...
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3 votes
1 answer
119 views

Where is "Keumgang-Gul / Diamond Cave"?

This short poem by Ko Un is entitled, in its English translation by Sunny Jung, "Keumgang-Gul / Diamond Cave". I'm assuming that Keumgang-Gul is the original Korean title and it translates ...
Rand al'Thor's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
127 views

In Ko Un's short poem "In the very middle of the road", why does the narrator take a different path?

There's a short poem by Ko Un that, when translated, goes like this: In the very middle of the road two dogs are coupling I take another route (source; translated by Brother Anthony of Taizé) Why ...
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3 votes
0 answers
294 views

Ko Un's "Around Unmun Temple at Ch'Eongdo"

Ko Un's poem "Around Unmun Temple at Ch'Eongdo" can be read, in its English translation by Sunny Jung (and Hillel Schwartz?), at the Poetry Foundation website. There's a lot to unpack in ...
Rand al'Thor's user avatar
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3 votes
0 answers
149 views

Is there any significance to the lemons and the port in Ko Un's "Asking the Way"?

"Asking the Way" is a short poem by Ko Un, addressing "You fools who ask what god is" and telling them to ask about life instead, illustrating the principle with examples about ...
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