Day and night

 

 

Like the wind passes through the leaves of the tree
So do you pass through my mind.

 

Like a bird sleeps in the leaves of the tree
so do you sleep in my mind.

****

A friend

 

 

A friend is life’s lodging,
it is a lamp,
it is rest
and in the journey to a far away unseen tomorrow,
he is hot stinging tears,
he is a guiding hand.
Today at Athami beach
we gather
like sun fossils
talking of yesterday, sharing today
and parting again
tomorrow.

Cho Byung-hwa

Translation: Kevin O’Rourke-Germain Droogenbroodt

****

A day

near Chongno Intersection

in a corner of Yangji Tearoom
-pinnacle of the sky-
 ­I sat with a Buddhist friend discussing enlightenment.

Autumn stayed on;

it waited by my side.

We talked of the human heart
till late in the night,

my Buddhist friend pointing out
that the man who knows least,
possesses least, and is least
disposed to count and calculate.

Autumn stayed on;

it listened to my words.

There

near Chongno Intersection
in the middle of Seoul
in Yangji Tearoom

-pinnacle of the sky-

­the hours did not crowd
thickly as they really do,

the place was not completely
empty, not total abandonment.
Lives, wings folded, wriggled
under glass, and as the dregs
of night settled, my friend's
gentle laugh told of all vanity.
         Autumn stayed on, selecting

the leaves of its choice.

A day

near Chongno Intersection

-atop that pinnacle of the sky­-

I walked the road of all loss and gain
as autumn passed through the branches of the trees.
Time already had risen from my side.

 

Cho Byung-hwa

 

From: “Night Talk”, Universal Publishing Co., Seoul, 1988
Translation: Kevin O’Rourke


****************

CHO Byung-hwa, a major Korean poet, was born in 1921 in Ansong, Kyonggi province, South Korea and died the 8^th of March in 2003.  He had a long and distinguished career as a professor of Korean literature and poetry, during which he had published numerous volumes of poems and essays and received many important literary awards. He served many years as president of the Korean Poets’ Association as well as the Korean Writers’ Association. He was also president of the 4^th World Congress of Poets, held in Seoul.