Ikkyu: Crow With No Mouth
15th Century Zen Master
September 2000
Trade Paperback · 80 Pages
$14.00 U.S. · $17.00 CAN
ISBN 9781556591525
Copper Canyon Press
Trade Paperback · 80 Pages
$14.00 U.S. · $17.00 CAN
ISBN 9781556591525
Copper Canyon Press
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Description
An eccentric classic of Zen poetry
When Zen master Ikkyu Sojun (1394–1481) was appointed headmaster of the great temple at Kyoto, he lasted nine days before denouncing the rampant hypocrisy he saw among the monks there. He in turn invited them to look for him in the sake parlors of the Pleasure Quarters. A Zen monk-poet-calligrapher-musician, he dared to write about the joys of erotic love, along with more traditional Zen themes. He was an eccentric and genius who dared to defy authority and despised corruption. Although he lived during times plagued by war, famine, rioting, and religious upheaval, his writing and music prevailed, influencing Japanese culture to this day.
Ikkyu scandalized the Zen community of his day and is likely to scandalize some readers even now — his short poems are simultaneously bawdy, abrupt, vulgar, and reverential… It is impossible not to love the velocity and variety of his verse. — The Philadelphia Inquirer
Stephen Berg is exactly the right poet to have translated these poems. — Hayden Carruth, The Hudson Review
A deeply sensual man, Ikkyu had little patience for the fussiness of monastic life and ritual… What is especially appealing about Ikkyu's poetry is the way his sensuality infuses his Zen sensibility. — American Book Review
Stephen Berg is the founder of American Poetry Review.
Also available by Stephen Berg
Steel Cricket
PB $16.00, 1–55659–075-X CUSA
New & Selected Poems
PB $12.00, 1–55659–043–1 CUSA
When Zen master Ikkyu Sojun (1394–1481) was appointed headmaster of the great temple at Kyoto, he lasted nine days before denouncing the rampant hypocrisy he saw among the monks there. He in turn invited them to look for him in the sake parlors of the Pleasure Quarters. A Zen monk-poet-calligrapher-musician, he dared to write about the joys of erotic love, along with more traditional Zen themes. He was an eccentric and genius who dared to defy authority and despised corruption. Although he lived during times plagued by war, famine, rioting, and religious upheaval, his writing and music prevailed, influencing Japanese culture to this day.
Ikkyu scandalized the Zen community of his day and is likely to scandalize some readers even now — his short poems are simultaneously bawdy, abrupt, vulgar, and reverential… It is impossible not to love the velocity and variety of his verse. — The Philadelphia Inquirer
Stephen Berg is exactly the right poet to have translated these poems. — Hayden Carruth, The Hudson Review
A deeply sensual man, Ikkyu had little patience for the fussiness of monastic life and ritual… What is especially appealing about Ikkyu's poetry is the way his sensuality infuses his Zen sensibility. — American Book Review
Stephen Berg is the founder of American Poetry Review.
Also available by Stephen Berg
Steel Cricket
PB $16.00, 1–55659–075-X CUSA
New & Selected Poems
PB $12.00, 1–55659–043–1 CUSA
About the Author
Stephen Berg, founding editor of American Poetry Review, is the author of two dozen books of poetry and translations. He is a professor of English at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.