What bliss it is to be blind to life’s futility.
Today as usual from the far-off village
a fishing boat has set out to sea, I hear–
how fearful were the waves billowing last year!
transalated by Jaihiun Kim & Ronald B. Hatch
20th Century Korean poetry
Some Day by Sowol Kim
If you should call me some day
I would say: “I’ve forgotten about you.”
If you should reproach me–
“I’ve missed you much and had to give up.”
If you should reproach me again–
“I’ve forgotten because I cannot trust you anymore.”
Day after day I’ve been thinking about you
until some day I will say: “I’ve forgotten.”
translated by Jaihiun Kim & Ronald B. Hatch
untitled poem by Sowol Kim
I miss the place where my beloved is.
I miss her because I cannot serve her.
Don’t you ever watch a bird winging
north and south, drawn home by instinct?
translated by Jaihiun Kim & Ronald B. Hatch
Hope by Sowol Kim
Night comes and snow falls.
On the edge of a brook
I hear an owl hooting forever in the mountains.
Fallen leaves lie scattered under the snow.
What a bleak landscape–
a moment too late I realize
how to be wise after sorrow.
Things of this world
are an idle show,
the skin-deep beauty our mind creates.
In the sweet-scented autumn night
the trees throw twisting shadows
on leaves torn off by the lashing rain.
translated by Jaihiun Kim & Ronald B. Hatch
Optimism by Sowol Kim
I must take comfort,
take life as it comes
the way the wind whines in the trees
stripped of flowers and foliage.
translated by Jaihiun Kim & Ronald B. Hatch
Love’s Gift by Sowol Kim
These tears dripping for love,
these pearl-like tears,
I wish to spread together
with an imperishable red thread
for my beloved to wear around her neck
as a gift of love.
translated by Jaihiun Kim & Ronald B. Hatch
Foreign Country by Sowol Kim
I turn to look at an iron bridge
I’ve crossed before I realize
I’ve set foot in a foreign land.
translated by Jaihiun Kim & Ronald B. Hatch
Road by Sowol Kim
Again last night
in a country inn
I heard a crow cawing all night.
Today
where shall I be bound?
How many more miles to go?
Up to the mountains,
onto the plains?
No, no place beckons.
No more talk.
To my home in the far north
trains and boats travel.
Tell me,
wild goose in the skies,
is there a sky-road that you travel so freely?
Wild goose in the skies,
look at me standing
at the crossroads.
The road radiates
in many directions
yet none of them can I choose.
translated by Jaihiun Kim & Ronald B. Hatch
Cricket by No Ch’on-myong
Because my shelter must not be known,
because my poorness must not show,
in hiding through the night I cry.
For somewhere someone weeps like me
I must soak more in the moonlight,
retain the sorrow of my night again
there behind the stone steps.
translated by Ko Won
Deer by No Ch’on-myong
Because of your long neck
you are a sad animal;
always quiet and gentle.
Your line must have been of high birth,
you have their noble crown.
Looking at your image in the water
brings back long-lost tales
with a nostalgia too sharp to bear.
You look over, stretching your sad neck
toward the far hill.
translated by Ko Won
Leonard Durso 