Garden Chrysanthemums and First Mountain Snow:
Zen Questions and Answers from Korea

While reading this book of questions and answers, I stopped long enough to eat an apple and noticed that the seeds hidden inside were not really hidden. And I wondered, are the enigmatic answers of these Korean Zen masters not also present in these rosy red questions? The only way to find out is to eat the apple. But if you do, why not spit out the seeds and plant your own tree? —Red Pine

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Borderland Roads: The Selected Poems of Hŏ Kyun

Borderland Roads is a selection of poems from the writer Hŏ Kyun, one of Korea's literary elite in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The book catalogs the Japanese invasions of Korea in 1592 and 1597-the only record of its kind of these events in poetry.

Hŏ Kyun's poetry is in the tradition of his master, the incomparable Tu Fu, while remaining fully his own. Writing nine centuries later, Hŏ's poetry strikes many parallels-the experiences of war and exile and constant struggle-and his voice is similarly humane. This is rich and enlightening reading.—Sam Hamill

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