A Mother's-heart^*

By Lee Keun Bae

Translated by Rodney E. Tyson & Hong Eun-Taek

The Quarterly Review: Poetry & Criticism, 3(2), p. 240. Summer 2000.

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A thing of the field my mother weeded
That grew and became a flower
From my mother's fallen sweat.
You don't know ideology.
You don't know that my mother
Became the wife of an ideologist and
Went sleepless her whole life.
On the spot the thatched house stood
Only stones flung in my
Early years remain.
How desolate!
Never to be appeased by tears,
You, the frail plant that
Flowers in the village where I grew up.
 

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^*A mother's-heart is a flowering plant also known as a shepherd's purse.

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The Quarterly Review: Poetry & Criticism | Curriculum Vitae