POETRY

OF LOVE The one who says “I Love You”, is a sad fiddler, who has lost his song. Only if Love itself, had a tongue! A thousand, blissful hoopoes, laugh inside of your eyes. Thousands of silent canaries, stay still in my throat. If only Love itself, could have a word! The one who says, “I Love You”, is a …

LIE AND TRUTH There was a mysterious land; its long southern parts extended to the great sea. No one knew much about it. People in the land had a strong belief that they lived in a unique land of peace and wealth. So, ever happy they were and they had a positive habit of smiling. This beautiful myth misled them …

WHEN A BRANCH CROSSES OVER THE WALL When a drooping willow branch crossed over the wall, it may not have been her work alone. If the distant root, whose face she hadn’t seen even once, and the flowers and leaves–who had put their flesh together and washed their hands of each other, hadn’t supported her as one body, the branch …

BETWEEN FRIENDS Beautiful is silent together, even better is to laugh together, under the silk cloth of the sky, down into the moss, bent over a book, laughing loud and friendly between friends, and find out the whiteness of the teeth. If I have succeeded, we remain silent. If I failed, we laugh about, and we do still worse, worse …

LETTER TO A FRIEND Let me tell you about these sheep. In many ways they are like the ocean creatures you know so well: in the benevolence of the creator, they bear children, each has a face of a lad or an old man. These days they are on the hills, a tight flock, a warm flock, with a thin …

CATFISH IN THE WOODS My dog suddenly runs off, slipping the leash startled by a wild beast. Without blowing a conch, the giant fish-god tosses and turns, in the deep ocean bed, heaving his bloated belly in his millenary sleep. The mischievous catfish plays dirty tricks, belching out muddy billows over homes, rice paddies boats, cars, nuclear plants, guzzling them …

EAR Pretending to hear, nothing her earlobe, is sleeping, all the world is far away now. It does not reach       as far as her ear, a thin fairy of pleasure, parched like a honey bee, on the woman’s earlobe       sometimes, completely stops hearing sounds. Suddenly captured by a thick lip, she squirms in a sea of torture, of cruel teeth, …

A CARVED WOODEN CHAIR Not a trace of sky, earth, or ax. They have no effect on it anymore. All the faults were smoothed out and polished, now it looks like a timeless flower. Someone separated it from many other wooden chairs. It sits alone, like the quietest heart that yields to fate too often: lonely, powerless, being sanded down …

THE SNOWY NIGHT Oh, my lover who had pure eyes; oh, the silver scales that occupied your eyes. Tonight snow falls. Oh, my poor lover who wrapped my neck with a white towel and washed my face, a sacred quiet descends upon the lonely planet. I close my eyes to remember the time your hands washed my face. (Moon Tae-jun)

THE POEM MAN On this side of eternity, alone, hope, the sun freedom all trace, tomorrow’s poem-being on this side of eternity, alone, sun, saliva, knowledge and unchanging memory of love, all trace tomorrow’s poem-man. On this side of eternity, every second alone, sun, saliva, knowledge and immutable memory of love. All trace confident as they are the backbone freedom, …