The poetry of Zen masters such as Ikkyu, Basho, and Dogen has haunted and nourished readers and poets for centuries. Poet-translator-editor Stephen Berg has wrestled with these poets and their
ideas for fifty years, incorporating their poetry into his own. Driven to know "what these people thought, believed, felt," Berg rewrote existing translations to create provocative, vigorous,
and multilayered versions of some of the most revered poems of the Zen tradition.
These are not new poems, nor are they old poems. They are timeless in their ambitions. They manifest explorations into the deeper resonances of Zen and the art of the poem by expounding on
age-old, frequently overpowering, themes. This is essential Zen poetry to the marrow, and Berg acknowledges those who came before while simultaneously breathing new life into a long-established
tradition.
