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님 의 침묵 (LOVE'S SILENCE)

한 용운 (Yong-woon Han)


Love has gone. Ah, my love has gone.
He has left, shaking me off, and breaking
the green mountain light along the small path
toward the maple grove. The old promise that
was firm and bright as golden flowers has been
carried away like cold dust by a breath of breeze.
The memory of the keen first kiss has receded,
changing my fate's course. Your sweet voice has
deafened me and your fair face has blinded me.

Love after all is a human affair; so I feared
our parting when we first met. But this parting
has been too sudden, and my surprised heart is
bursting with fresh sorrow. To make parting
a source of idle tears will only mar love itself.
So I have poured the hopeless sorrow into a keg
of new hope. As we dread parting when we meet,
so we believe in reunion when we part.

Ah, my love has gone, but I have not let him go.
A love-song that cannot bear its own music
hovers over the love's silence.




-- From "Best Loved Poems of Korea"
at UCB East Asian Library (PL 984 E3 B4 1984 EAST)



==> Han, Yong-woon (1879-1944), the famous Buddhist priest-patriot,
wrote many poems which are among the best loved Korean poems. Among
others, his poetry often reveals flashes of Buddhist insights into
the inexplicable and paradoxical nature of existence. His poems were
collected in Love's Silence, 1926. He also wrote novels.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


THE SILENCE OF LOVE


Love is gone, gone is my love.
Tearhing himself away from me he has gone
on a little path that stretches in the splendor of
a green hill into an autumn-tinted forest.
Our last oath, shining and enduring
like a gold-mosaicked flower,
has turned to cold ashes, blown away
in the breath of wind.
I remember his poignant first kiss and its memory
has wrought a complete change in my destiny,
then withdrawn into oblivion.
I hear not his sweet voice; I see no his fair looks.
Since it is human to love, I, alert, dreaded a
parting to come when we met.
The separation came so suddenly
it broke my heart with renewed sorrow.
Yet, I know parting can only destroy our love if
it causes futile tears to fall.
I would rather transfer the surge of this sorrow
onto the summit of hopefulness.
As we dread parting when we meet, so,
we promise to meet again when we part.
Though my love is gone, I am not lost to love;
an untiring love-song envelops the silence of love.




-- 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)


==> Han, Yong'un (1879-1944)
Born in Hongsong, south Ch`ungch`ong, a devoted Buddhist monk since his
early years, Han was one of the 33 members who in 1919 signed the historical
documents to declare Korea independent of the Japanese colonial rule. His
poems concern his philosophical meditation on nature and the mystery of
human existence. 'The Silence of Love' (1926); 'Complete Works of Han
Yong-un' (1973)