"Hyesim's poems: transformative as walking high granite mountains by moonlight, with fragrant herbs underfoot and a thermos of clear tea in the backpack. Their bedrock is thusness, their images' beauty is pellucid and new, their view without limit. The shelf of essential Zen poets for American readers grows larger with this immediately indispensable collection."--Jane Hirshfield "His poems speak softly and clearly, like hearing a temple bell that was struck a thousand years ago."--Sam Hamill Chin'gak Kuksa Hyesim (1178--1234) was the first Zen master dedicated to poetry in Korea. Ian Haight's books of translations include Borderland Roads: Selected Poems of Ho Kyun and Garden Chrysanthemums and First Mountain Snow: Zen Questions and Answers from Korea.
