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context: poetry
Buddhist Poetry
Much medieval poetry is by Zen monks. These are poems designed to enlighten, like koan, or death poems summarising the monk's life or thought, or at least creating a final statement. Much of these are precursors of Haiku, which became very Zen in time. I'll quote one from Ikyu (also famous as a calligrapher)(translation by Lucien Stryk):
After ten years in the red-light district,
How solitary a spell in the mountains.
I can see clouds a thousand miles away,
Hear ancient music in the pines.