Ko Un (born 1933 in Gunsan, in Japanese-occupied Korea [now South Korea]) returned to the secular world in 1962 after a decade of Buddhist monastic life.  --  He was active in South Korea's democracy movement in the 1970s and spent time in prison.  --  He has published 135 volumes and has been short-listed twice for the Nobel Prize in Literature.  --  The poem posted below is from Flowers of a Moment, a collection of translations of 185 poems that was published in 2006.[1] ...

1.

IN THE OLD DAYS A POET ONCE SAID
By Ko Un

In the old days a poet once said
our nation is destroyed
yet the mountains and rivers survive

Today's poet says
the mountains and rivers are destroyed
yet our nation survives

Tomorrow's poet will say
the mountains and rivers are destroyed
our nation is destroyed and Alas!
you and I are completely destroyed

--From Flowers of a Moment by Ko Un.  English language translation copyright © 2006 by Brother Anthony, Young-moo Kim, and Gary Gach.