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LONGING



My heart is on fire,
burning ceaselessly for something.

I reach out my hand, waving far into the distance.
Forgetting that my hands and feet are in chains,
I gasp in a desperate self-struggle.

Who was it that played flute once?
I do not know where its notes still
linger, here or there.

There must be some place that calls me;
Somewhere in the far distance
something seems to beckon.

My heart is burning, burning ceaselessly.





-- 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)

==> No, Ch'onmyong (1913-1957)
Born in Chang'yon, Hwanghae province, No began writing while she was at
Ehwa Womens University. Affiliated with 'The Poetry Garden', No distinguished
herself as a rare talent and a great woman poet. Single all her life through,
No made her solitude and self-torture her weapon against the hostile universe.
In 'The Song of Deer' she outgrows the netting solitude and introspection
and enters the world of love and repentance. Her work includes 'The Coral
Reefs' (1938), 'The Window Side' (1945), 'Looking at the Stars' (1953), 'The
Song of Deer' (1959) and 'Complete Works by No Ch`on-myong' (1960)