Korean poet, writer, and activist Ko Un was born in Gunsan-si, Jeollabuk-do. He was drawn to poetry after discovering the early work of Han Ha-Un, a nomadic Korean poet with leprosy. After witnessing the devastation of the Korean War, Ko entered a monastery and became a …

Seaside Poems (1966) Song of a Cemetery . No one comes to visit you now, but your descendants will be coming, one by one. Last night, an insect sang on all alone after the rest had stopped, darkening the night. This autumn morning you are fast asleep, drying the precious dew. As sunlight shines down further off, the grass tips whiten.

Ko Un (born on 1 August or 11 April 1933) is a South Korean poet whose works have been translated and published in more than 15 countries. He had been imprisoned many times due to his role in the campaign for Korean democracy.

Note: The term here translated as "Taking to the hills" usually refers to someone who is leaving the world to enter Buddhist monastic life. But in this poem Ko Un is using it to refer to the act of becoming a guerilla, a member of a group of armed “partisans” hiding in the hills. Such groups were found in Korea before and during the Korean War.

Ko Un (Korean: 고은; born 1 August 1933) is a South Korean poet whose works have been translated and published in more than fifteen countries.

pheasants flutter away, frightened for no reason. The snow’s not gone yet. An old man, arms akimbo, runs into an eddy of wind. Courtesy of University of California Press.

2014年11月2日 · Robert Hass writes that “Ko Un is a remarkable poet and one of the heroes of human freedom in this half century, a religious poet who got tangled by accident in the terrible accidents of modern history. But he is somebody who has been equal to the task, a feat rare among human beings.”

Two poems by Ko Un. 7. The eyes of that woman who for half a day of flower-rain trod on falling petals, petals covering the ground. The eyes of that pregnant woman. Some three years later, the eyes of that newborn baby, eyes that do not know a swallow is a swallow.

Born in 1933 in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, Ko Un is Korea's foremost living writer. After immense suffering during the Korean War, he became a Buddhist monk. His first poems were published in 1958, then a few years later he returned to the world.

Ko Un (born August 1, 1933, Kunsan, North Cholla province, Japanese-occupied Korea [now in South Korea]) is a prolific Korean poet who gained an international readership with verse informed by both his political activism in Korea and a broader concern for humanity.