Poetry
SUMMER 2023낙화2
피였다 몰래 지는
고운 마음을
흰 무리 쓴 촛불이
홀로 아노니
꽃 지는 소리
하도 가늘어
귀 기울여 듣기에도
조심스러라
두견이도 한목청
울고 지친 밤
나 혼자만 잠 들기
못내 설어라
Falling Flower 2
by CHO JI HOON
Translated by SEKYO NAM HAINES
Without being seen, the fading flower falls
only the white haloed
candlelight knows
its tender hearts.
The sound of the falling flower
is so faint that
to hear it, I cautiously
lean my ears.
Tonight, the cuckoo is tired
after its full-throated song.
Sad, I alone go
to sleep.
Fir and Cuckoo by Imao Keinen (1892)
Sekyo Nam Haines
Born in South Korea, Sekyo Nam Haines’s first book of translation of Korean poetry, The Bitter Seasons’ Whip: The Complete Poems of Lee Yuk Sa, was published in April 2022 by Tolsun Books. Her work has appeared in Lilly Poetry Review, The Massachusetts Review, and Hayden’s Ferry. Sekyo lives in Cambridge, MA.
Cho Ji Hoon
Cho Ji Hoon (1920-1968) is a canonical poet of modern Korea. A renowned scholar of Korean aesthetics, his poetry is rooted in the literary Sijo, which began in the 12th century and has an intense local flavor of pre-industrial Korea. A professor at Korea University for twenty years, Cho Ji Hoon published six poetry collections.