Mingsha Mountain By Oh Tak Bon
Translated by Rodney E. Tyson & Hong Eun-Taek
The Quarterly Review: Poetry & Criticism, 4(1), p. 153. Spring 2001.
Accompanying Master Hyecho who has been sleeping
For a long time in the hazy
Sandy winds of Mingsha Mountain to Yueya Spring
We drink a few cups of wine
With side dishes of pickled garlic, soy paste with red pepper, and sesame leaves
Brought from Seoul
I summon the desert women
Who have been such good bed partners for the Master
Seat them at the edge of the camel grass
Where madder red flowers are blooming
And inform the Master of the rise and fall of the old states
The Uigur girls smelling of goats' milk
And the Hun girls smelling of horses' milk
Who have been his bed partners for a thousand years
And kindly tickled the Master often
Are truly admirable
So I make rings from the jade-colored waters of Yueya Spring
And place them one by one on finger after finger
Begging with the cries of the sand
The Quarterly Review: Poetry & Criticism | Curriculum Vitae