A Third Sphere

I draw a straight line,
dividing this side from that.
White snow falls on this side
while red snow falls on the other.
Strangely enough, the snow never melts.
I draw a curved line.
This side is the south that side the north.
The line turns into a barbwire fence.
Strangely enough, the barbwire never rusts.
I draw a line deep in the earth.
Green fruit ripens on this side,
red fruit on the other side.
Strangely, those who eat the fruit
even brothers
become archenemies.
I draw a line as with a knife blade.
A wall rises along the line;
those who go over the wall die.
Strange enough, rifles and swords guard the wall.
I draw a line, straight or curved.
But the sky does not divide into any sides.
A new sphere emerges to erase the lines.

Moon Dok-su

(c) Moon Dok-su tr. Koh Chang-soo - Kim Jai-hyun - Choi Yearn-hong

Dr. Moon Dok-su, born 1927 in Ham An, Korea, is a professor of Korean
literature. He organized in Seoul a most prestigious World Congress of
Poets. The present poem has been selected from "Autumn Landscape", an
anthology of his poems, translated and published in English in 1990. He
wrote more than ten volumes of poetry.
The present poem refers to the separation of North and South Korea and has
been included as well in "Herfstheuvels (Autumn Hills), a Dutch anthology of
modern Korean poetry, translated by Germain Droogenbroodt and published in
the POINT collection.