Friday, April 01, 2005
Classical Korean Poems - 시조 모음 (THE CROSS by YUN, TONGJU)
THE CROSS
Yun, Tong-ju (윤 동주)
The sunlight that has been chasing me
now hangs on the cross
on the top of a church.
How could it have scaled
its steeple, so high?
No bell is ringing;
I fool around giving a whistle.
Were I to be allowed the cross
as was Jesus Christ,
who suffered but was happy,
I would gladly hang my head
and let my blood flow in quiet
like a flower flaring
under the darkening skies.
-- From "Korean Poetry Today : Selected and
translated with an introduction by Jaihiun J. Kim"
at UCB East Asian Library (PL 959.5 K68 1987 EAST)
Yun, Tong-ju (윤 동주)
The sunlight that has been chasing me
now hangs on the cross
on the top of a church.
How could it have scaled
its steeple, so high?
No bell is ringing;
I fool around giving a whistle.
Were I to be allowed the cross
as was Jesus Christ,
who suffered but was happy,
I would gladly hang my head
and let my blood flow in quiet
like a flower flaring
under the darkening skies.
-- From "Korean Poetry Today : Selected and
translated with an introduction by Jaihiun J. Kim"
at UCB East Asian Library (PL 959.5 K68 1987 EAST)
# posted by speattle @ 9:31 PM 
