The exquiste drawing reveals a divine art,
With all the grass and flowers shining in spring light.
But all this, after all, is a serene illusion;
Who will know both the picture and I are but fleeting shadows?
translated by Sung-Il Lee
15th Century Korean poetry
After an Old Song by Kim Su-On
Upon the thick ice of midwinter
Let us spread the frosted bamboo leaves.
Though I freeze to death with you,
I wish the cock would never crow.
traqnslated by Sung-Il Lee
After a Folk Song by Song Kan
Green bamboo remains upright in the wind;
But duckweed drifts on the wavering water.
I wish you to be like green bamboo
And not resemble duckweed, floating down the stream.
translated by Sung-Il Lee
After an Old Song by Kim Su-on
Upon the thick ice of midwinter
Let us spread the frosted bamboo leaves.
Though I freeze to death with you,
I wish the cock would never crow.
translated by Sung-Il Lee
Life in Leisure by Kil Jae
Living alone in leisure in a hut by the stream,
I enjoy more than my share of moon and wind.
Though no one comes to visit, birds sing to me.
I move my cot near the bamboo grove, and lie down to rest.
translated by Sung-Il Lee
A Fisherman by Song Kan
Mountains rise over mountains and smoke from valleys;
the dust of the world can never touch the white gulls.
The old fisherman is by no means disinterested;
he owns, in his boat, the moon over the west river.
translated by Kim Jong-gil
Thinking of a Friend by Pak On
Snow melts and swells the stream,
crows fly toward the clouds at dusk.
Sobered by the scene from drunkenness,
I write this poem and think of you.
translated by Kim Jong-gil
Leonard Durso 