Nho, Taimaing
Poet Mr. Nho, Taimaing was born in 1962 in Changnyeong-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do. He graduated from Yeungnam University Department of Medicine and Masters and PhD from Kyungpook National University of Department of Philosophy. He has published poetry collections: ‘Go to the Glass and Burn’, ‘Calling the Blue Goat’, ‘Burning the Byeokamrok’, and ‘White Birds on Each Branch of the Retusa Fringe Tree’. His Prose Book is ‘Goodbye, as if today is the last’.
His literary awards include the 1990 Literature JoongAng Rookie Award, the 2016 Daegu Poets Association Award, and the 2022 Siphon Literary Award.
If I go to the Yuri (羑里)
You’ve been trapped in the glass too long.
Meet lightly like dust
The news of you who said let’s live like the breaking sunlight doesn’t come back
Will I be able to meet you if I go to the Yuri (羑里)?
Sitting by the window where spring comes, today
I also tried split a bamboo to see a prophecy to meet you.
That blue wind that pierced me wherever I could reach my memory,
To avoid blood, you leave for the glass
We tied our waists to the wild grass and cried while being shaken by the wind.
Our hungry children
They go to the beach and build sandcastles
We buried the shining sun and was full.
My dear, will I still be able to meet you if I go to Yuri?
We don’t get sick anymore, we don’t despair
With you who said you were sitting by the dry river
We could meet as clear water.
Maybe you leave the Yuri
But we live in the glass
Today you are coming to see us
It could become a blue river.
***
유리(羑里)에 가면
그대 유리에 너무 오래 갇혀 있었지.
먼지처럼 가볍게 만나
부서지는 햇살처럼 살자던 그대의 소식 다시 오지 않고
유리에 가면 그대 만날 수 있을까,
봄이 오는 창가에 앉아 오늘은
대나무 쪼개어 그대 만나는 점도 쳐보았지.
유리 기억 닿는 곳마다 찔러오던 그 시퍼런 댓바람,
피는 피하자고 그대는 유리로 떠나고
들풀에 허리 묶고 우리 그때 바람에 흔들리며 울었었지.
배고픈 우리 아이들
바닷가로 몰려가 모래성 쌓고
빛나는 태양 끌어 묻어 다독다독 배불렸었고.
그대, 지금도 유리에 가면 그대 만날 수 있을까.
우리는 이제 아프지 않고 절망하지도 않아
물 마른 강가에 앉아 있다던 그대와
맑은 물이 되어 만날 수도 있을 텐데.
어쩌면 그대는 유리를 떠나고
유리엔 우리가 살아서
오늘은 그대가 우리를 만나러 오는
시퍼런 강이 되기도 하겠지만.
______________
(Yuri is the imaginary place. It’s the prison, where King Wen was imprisoned by King Zhou, the tyrant of Eun Dynasty in China, 3100 years ago)
