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Poetry
Chaikhana
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About Ko UnTimeline (1933 - ) |
![Ko Un, Ko Un poetry, Buddhist, Buddhist poetry, Zen / Chan poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry, poetry](images/KoUn_sm.jpg) |
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English version by Original Language |
Sunlight
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It's absolutely inevitable!
So just take a deep breath and accept this adversity. But look! A distinguished visitor deigns to visit my tiny north-facing cell. Not the chief making his rounds, no, but a ray of sunlight as evening falls, a gleam no bigger than a screwed-up stamp. A sweetheart fit to go crazy about. It settles there on the palm of a hand, warms the toes of a shyly bared foot. Then as I kneel and, undevoutly, offer it a dry, parched face to kiss, in a moment that scrap of sunlight slips away. After the guest has departed through the bars, the room feels several times colder and darker. This military prison special cell is a photographer's darkroom. Without any sunlight I laughed like a fool. One day it was a coffin holding a corpse. One day it was altogether the sea. A wonderful thing! A few people survive here. Being alive is a sea without a single sail in sight.
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Ivan
M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright ©
2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or
publishers.
