Having Once Paused: Poems of Zen Master Ikkyu

by Ikkyu Sojun, Sarah Messer, Kidder Smith

The influence of Zen Master Ikkyū (1394-1481) permeates the full field of medieval Japanese aesthetics. Though best known as a poet, he was central to the shaping and reshaping of practices in calligraphy, Noh theater, tea ceremony, and rock gardening, all of which now define Japan’s sense of its cultural tradition. Ikkyū is unique in Zen for letting his love of all appearance occupy him until it destroys any possibility for safety or seclusion.  In his poetry, he turns the eye of enlightenment to all politics, pine trees, hard meditation practice, sex, wine. A lifelong outsider to religious establishments, Ikkyū nonetheless accepted Imperial command to rebuild his home temple, Daitoku-ji, destroyed in the civil wars. He died before that project was complete.
 
The poems in this collection express the unborn bliss of Ikkyū’s realization and equally his devastation at the horrors of this world. They are peopled with ancient Chinese poets, cantankerous Japanese Zen Masters, contemporary warlords, and his lover Mori, a blind musician who lived with Ikkyū the last eleven years of his life. All of this is his Buddhism. His awakening outshines the small idols of reason, emotion, self, desire, doctrine, even of Buddhism itself.

Genres: Poetry, Zen

144 pages, Hardcover

First published March 28, 2015

Reviews

[Mack Flavelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to love this. I really did.

Poetry from a drunken zen monk who hates hypocritical institutional corruption, loves meditation, sex and sake - and was a really nice dude. And the man who turned down his shot at the emperor's throne.

That was the context I had going into this.

Also the first attempt I've made to read poetry in decades or maybe ever.

But

And it's tragic

It was terrible.

Turns out a ~600 year old Japanese monk writing in Chinese and then translated to english, with constant mythical and historical references I have no context for, make for poor reading. No wisdom, no delight, no reflection.

Event though the book tried to frame each poem in terms of what he was saying and referring to, it really just didn't click.

Still an amazing historical figure, but so far his poetry is falling on deaf ears with me.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

underwhelming. no memorable lines of poetry.

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the many available selections of Ikkyu's poetry translated into English. It's not one of the more extensive ones, containing only about fifty poems, but it does include some nice features.

First of all, each poem is prefaced by a page of notes. This opens up the possibility of including poems that would make little sense to any modern reader who isn't an expert on Japan, Zen, and Chinese Classics -- and the history, thereof. Secondly, it includes the kanji for those who'd like to access the source material, and it includes the poem number with respect to Ikkyu's "Crazy Cloud Anthology." Third it has some front matter to offer readers insight into Ikkyu's life and philosophy.

For fans of Ikkyu, this is an interesting selection, and the notes offer more insight into the history of the poems than do most selections.

[Fernando Pachón Cárdeno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es muy curiosa la forma de anotar que han escogido los autores y traductores, imitando los comentarios en prosa precedentes a los poemas que fueron comunes en la poesía clásica china y a la poesía japonesa en chino.

[Alex Fyffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Expectation, a Tantalizing fruit dangling overhead.
The exhaustion of building a ladder to reach it.
The fox never tasted Aesop's sour grapes,
But I have, and the fox wasn't missing much at all.

[Liam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ghastly translations, no poetry in them. Check out Stephen Berg's stunning versions instead.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed another book of Ikkyu poems. This one was much less approachable for someone who isn't fluent in zen and ancient poetic references.

[George Neville-Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice to have the Kanji as well

The best thing about this translation, for those who can read Japanese or Chinese, is the side by side presentation of English and Kanji as well as some Hiragana. Even a rudimentary understanding of the source language gives some added color to the translated text.