A mansion guarded by an elm stands by the road;
Its tall gate was built for prosperous posterity.
Now its dwellers have moved away, no cart comes by—
Only the passerby step in to avoid the rain.
translated by Sung-Il Lee
Waiting for My Love by Nung-un
My love said he would come at moonrise;
The moon has risen, but he has not come.
I presume that where my love lives
The mountain is so high the moon rises slowly.
translated by Sung-Il Lee
After Saying Farewell by So Yongsugak
After seeing off my love when dusk fell on the mountains,
I returned to lie down where white clouds float above.
Against the old wall a lyre is leaning—
To be strummed by the wind from the pines.
translated by Sung-Il Lee
On a Spring Day by Wang Paek
After last night’s fog soaked my thatched roof,
Peach blossoms near the bamboo are suddenly in full bloom.
Drunk with wine, I forget the snowy streaks of my hair—
I wear a flowery crown, standing in the spring breeze.
translated by Sung-Il Lee
Elegy for Myself by Ki Joon
When the sun sets, the sky is inky dark;
Deep in the mountains, the ravine is cloudy.
All the human wishes retained for a thousand years
Are finally fulfilled by a single mound.
translated by Sung-Il Lee
Mezcal by Damaris Calderon
At the bottom
of a bottle
of mezcal
–like at the end–
waiting for us
is the worm.
I chew
in dry earth
that whiteness
of living hedgerows
to know
the taste
of what will eat me.
translated by Katherine M. Hedeen
Metals by Anton Arrufat
What do you think of the word metal?
Do you like it?
If I say,
the metal of your voice,
do you like it?
Metal sounds,
shimmers, endures.
Gleams in the dirt
of excavations.
“It’s a metal,” says
the Egyptologist’s helper.
A metal in Etruria,
in Uxmal,
in the remote
city of Ur.
A metal,
the metal of your voice.
translated by Katherine M. Hedeen
Leave by Manuel Diaz Martinez
Leave the moon
and dogs in the yard;
leave the chrysanthemums
in the lone glass pitcher;
leave the suede mask
beneath my bed;
leave my weapons a handspan from me
and the wind in the roads;
leave me upon this thick notebook
where I write
the words you forget.
translated by Katherine M. Hedeen
open the door
are your feet tired
baby
from all that running
in my mind
she says
that seductive smile
slightly parted lips
the hint of a tongue
lying in wait
all this
her eyes say
and heaven too
only seconds
from now
hear my knock
again that smile
now open the door
from a line by Li Shang-yin: on the shore of the world
here
on the shore
of the world
one looks back
with clear eyes
at once was
at how little
has changed
Leonard Durso 