The Buddhist Nun by Baek Seok

/ zdunno03

another translation from the Korean by Geul on the blog Cardiac Slaves of the Stars

--'s avatarCardiac Slaves of the Stars

(translated from the Korean by geul)

The nun put her hands together and bowed.
She smelled of wild asters.
Her melancholic face was old, as of old.
Sorrow overcame me like scripture.

Goldmine deep in some mountain in Pyeongando
I bought an ear of corn from a pale woman.
Beating her young daughter, the woman wept coldly like the autumn night.

Ten years passed as she waited for her husband who’d taken off like a wasp.
The husband did not return and
the young daughter went to a stony grave for the love of bell flowers.

There was a day when the mountain pheasant too cried sorrowfully.
There was a day when locks of the woman’s hair fell together with teardrops in a   ***corner of a mountain temple.

poem in original Korean

View original post

2 thoughts on “The Buddhist Nun by Baek Seok”

  1. I love it as I do with all your work and the work you bring to us. I am signed out of FB for a bit, I need to give all of my energy to a piece that I am writing; 10,000 of a 50,000. I will catch you at your site instead, have a great Holiday…I know its a USA kind of day, but use it as an excuse to cook those many things you like to eat. E.

    Reply

    • Thank you, Elizabeth, and good luck with your writing that piece. Also, have a Happy Thanksgiving there on your side of the world. I’m actually going to dinner with an Iranian poet and her boyfriend so even though it’s not in celebration of the holiday, it is a celebration of literature anyway.

      Reply

Leave a reply to zdunno03 Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.