Korean Poetry: “Like the Setting Sunlight”

Translated by Park Yeon-seong

 

“Like the Setting Sunlight”

 

Oh well, meeting you in person may not be

the best way.

Like the setting sunlight―

Cause it’s not too bright,

I am gazing at the glow for a long while.

The setting sunlight, burning with darkness,

the red inside of white charcoal,

visible owing to tearful wind.

It is the yellowish breast of my mother,

the color of roasted flesh of a sweet potato.

In the empty field far away lies

a mountain, low and high.

With the setting sunlight

the wet trace of bare feet is

drying away.

Sparrows are being sprinkled from reeds

like sowing seeds in the western sky.

In silence I am gazing it.

It may hesitantly pass by me;

it may forget what kept in its heart;

it may give me a glass of water;

it may look at me empty-mindedly ―

Seen, unseen, and then seen again.

All of a sudden it is walking side by side

or coming to me like a setting sunlight or

as a shadow of my beloved.

I wonder why the setting sunlight is reaching me this way?

Today when the postcard in a familiar handwriting

has gladly arrived.

 

석양저햇살로

 

글쎄, 직접만나야좋은것은아닐듯

석양, 저햇살을오래응시할수있는것은

눈부시지않으니까

다만안으로타들어가니까

어둠에섞여타는빛

눈물바람이들춰낸숯불의내연

군고구마불탄껍질벗기면피어날

누런엄니젖무덤

그너머빈들녘먼산이자꾸오르내리니까

그걸멀리보고있으면

달궈진자갈밭에맨발물자국들이지워져가고

물억새밭에서참새떼가서녘하늘로씨뿌려지고

그걸가만히보고있으면

어쩐지저건내게곧바로오지않고

몇번은스쳐가고몇번은망설이다가

이젠따져확인할것도

마음안에가둬둘것도다잊은듯

마냥바라보다가그저물한잔건네려는듯

없다가있다가없다가

어느새함께걸어가는누군가로

혹은내안의그사람의그림자로

왜석양은내게저햇살로오는걸까?

낯익은필체의엽서가성큼도착한오늘

 

1960년전남담양출생. 1981년 <광주일보>와 2004년

Bio:

Yang Kyoonwon was born in Damyang in 1960. He made his literary debut in the pages of Gwangju Shinmun in 1981 and in the Lyrical

Poetics in 2004. He has recently published two books, “The Trend of

American Poetry in the 1990s” (2011) and “Drawing a line in Emptiness” (2012). He is currently a professor at Dae-jin University.