Crossing the Han River

By Kim Eun Ja
 

Translated by Rodney E. Tyson & Hong Eun-Taek

The Quarterly Review: Poetry & Criticism, 2(4), 75. Winter 1999.

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The day the sky came down close to my forehead
I saw the river thawing.
Your hard-frozen truth
Stranded by the deep darkness of the times,
When I see you off under the cloudy sky near the station
And come across the Han River
When my eyes constantly drown
In the transparent spring mist
And I wander about in the endless confusion
Of living things
I see a breath of air
Stirring the solid river.
If our white bones of truth are scattered and mingled with the current
And all the flesh of our love is torn off and
Blown away in a wind with no trace
The river thaws in such a way and
Causes pure love to flow as love.
On a heavy-hearted spring morning
The river thaws under a breath of air.

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