Traveler
A windy evening, the acid rain beats down
Street vendors close down their stalls.
After children, their bare ankles red from playing,
Like cockscomb flowers in the square, return to their homes.
Only dirty acid raindrops swarm under the light of unshaded bulbs.
Returning from a place further away than the clouds above the church steeple,
The traveler, arriving late in the world,
Fluttering sadness sticking to his collar like glue,
The shadow of dark civilization hang down behind his back,
Walks slowly as he opens and holds a bat-like umbrella.
What could be stronger than loneliness.
He hugs it to his cold body
While the most beautiful flame that year blooms like a Mandala in an Agung-ie,
Let us create a love child with brilliant eyes.
A woman sings a sad song, picking and taking down leaves, tok, tok,
Sorrow grows under her ribs all through the night.
Near dawn the new moon fades from the sky even as it appears on her fingernails,
She cries as she removes the painted eyebrows from her face.
Trees are shaken long by the wind.
She should return to the muddy world beyond the field road.
Inside her body, moss grows,
As, crossing from her wretched time,
She takes out a bird and hands it over.
Note: Agung-ie is the traditional Korean fireplace in the kitchen. It is the starting point of heating the home in Korean traditional houses, called Hanok.
시인 장석주 by Poet, Chang, SeokJoo
The poet, Seok-Ju Chang, was born in Non-San, Chung-Cheong-Nam-Do, South Korea, on January 8, 1955. His first published
work was “Midnight” that he received new and emerging poet award from Monthly Literature in 1975. In 1979, he awarded his poem, “Fly, Gloomy Dream” inChosun Il-Bo, Spring Literature and Dong-A-Il-Bo, Spring Literature, Critique, “Existence and Unrealism”.
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Translated by Clara Soonhee Kwon-Tatum, Ph.D. and Matthew Lewis, MA
