Between the vines, two magnolia blossoms
Meet each other’s eyes with affection,
A Celadon vase with magnolia patterns.
Ms. Si Rim Kim is a poet from Korea, the Land of Morning Calm
Poet Ms. Si Rim Kim was born in 1965 in Haenam, Jeollanam-do. She graduated from the Department of Creative Writing at the Graduate School of Culture and Arts at Dongguk University. She received the Newcomer Award from the literary magazine Korean Literature and Arts in 1991 and another Newcomer Award from Buddhist Literature in 2012. Her poetry collections include The Mugwort-Scented Seashore of The Honey Crab of My Name, The Woman Who Rides a Bicycle with Longing, The Shy Sweetbrier, and Webbed Feet Emerging. She was awarded the Simho Lee Dong-Ju Literary Prize and served as the editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Buddhist Literature. She is currently the Vice President of the Korean Association of World Literature
Before the Flower Vase
Before the Flower VaseBetween the vines, two magnolia blossoms
Meet each other’s eyes with affection,
A Celadon vase with magnolia patterns.
Your words, to place a wildflower in it with every season,
Still quiver like a wavering mirage.
Long ago, once upon a deck,
Like seashells lying side by side
On the ebb-tide’s sandbar,
Our hearts grew damp together.
You, whose chest burned with longing,
Once wished to walk barefoot
Across the grain of my sandy self.
And today, lapping again with the flood tide,
It feels as though you might hand me a plum branch, slender as a whip.
***
화병을 앞에 두고
덩굴 사이 목련꽃 두 송이
다정히 눈 맞추는
청자 목련 무늬 화병
철마다 들꽃 한 송이씩 꽂아두라던
아지랑이처럼 살랑거리는
네 말
오래전 어느 선상
썰물 진 모래톱에 나란히 누운 조개껍데기처럼
마음이 젖은 적이 있었던 우리
모래 결 같은 나를 맨발로 걷고 싶다던
가슴이 뜨거웠던 너
오늘은 찰박찰박 다시 밀물져 와선
회초리 같은 매화 가지 하나 건네줄 것만 같은
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