Rivers, and: After Tu Fu, and: Happiness
Rent from DeepDyve- Rivers, and: After Tu Fu, and: Happiness
rivers
The reason I’ve been weeping all day on the hill is not that rivers all flow into the sea.
That’s not the only reason my longing has been opening like a sunflower all night long on the hill.
The reason I’m weeping sorrowfully, like an animal on the hill, is not only because rivers all flow into the sea.
after tu fu
Autumn 1970
Father and Mother lie in the family burial site in the village.
I’m on my own in Seoul.
Brother and sisters are together in Pusan. [End Page 127]
Without money, I can’t go to them.
If one has to pay a fare when he passes away
does that mean I’ll never be able to go?
When you consider— what a deep mystery life is.
happiness
I’m the happiest man in the world.
Since my wife runs a café I’ve no need to worry about making ends meet, and I’ve gone to university, and therefore nothing’s lacking in my education, and because I’m now a poet my desire for fame is satisfied. I have a pretty wife, too, so I don’t think about women, and we have no children, no need to worry about the future, and we have a house as well— I’m really very comfortable. I’m fond of makgeolli, my wife always buys it for me, so what have I got to complain of? And besides, I firmly believe in God, and since the mightiest person in the whole wide world is looking after my interests, how can anyone say misfortune is coming? [End Page 128]
Brother Anthony of Taizé has published more than thirty volumes of translations of Korean poetry. Recently, he published ten volumes of work by Ko Un, along with volumes by Lee Si-Young and Kim Soo-bok. Born in Cornwall in 1942, he has lived in Korea since 1980 and was naturalized as a Korean citizen in 1994. Brother Anthony has received the Republic of Korea Literary Award (Translation), the Daesan Award for Translation, the Korea PEN Translation Prize, and the Ok-gwan (Jade Crown) Order of Merit for Culture from the Korean government. He is also emeritus professor of English at Sogang University and Chair of the International Creative Writing Center at Dankook University.
