For years in the dark earth,
He wandered as a grub,
I hold his dream to the sunlight,
And because it is hollow, it brims with light.
Ms. Im Sol Nae is an acclaimed poetess from Korea
Hailing from Korea, the Land of Morning Calm, Poet Ms. Im Sol Nae received the Newcomer Award from the monthly literary magazine Jayu Munhak in 1999. Her poetry collections include The QR Code of a Leaf, Amazon, That Transit Station, The Cry of an Awakened Amazon, Hong Nyeo, and many others. She has also received numerous literary honors, including the Yeongnang Poetry Award, the Korean Literary Critics Association Award, the Korean Lyric Poetry Award, selection as a Sejong Excellent Book, the Poet’s Poet Award, and the Buddhist Literary Writers’ Award. She is the 6th President of the Korean Association of World Literature.
Metamorphosis (羽化)*
For years in the dark earth,
He wandered as a grub,
I hold his dream to the sunlight,
And because it is hollow, it brims with light.
Facing the pitch-black wall of soil,
Murmuring chants through countless summers of meditation and winters of meditation,
In a hermitage sunk deep beneath the ground,
The days he offered to his dream,
Though wrapped in emptiness like a shroud of hemp,
Were they sweet?
That single room of dazzling, colorless light.
A soft breath— whoosh— as if it could fly, weightless and radiant,
This single moment—
Might take me a whole lifetime to reach.
*羽化 / Woo-hwa — the transformation of a chrysalis into a winged being.
***
우 화羽化
어두운 땅 속에서 수년 동안
굼벵이로 배회하다 이뤘다는
그의 꿈을 햇살에 비춰본다
속이 비었으므로 빛에 충만하다
칠흑 같은 흙덩이 면벽하고
음 고루며 겹겹의 하안거 동안거
지하 수 십 길 낭떠러지의 암자
모시 수의처럼 텅 비어서도 꿈에게 바친 날들이
달디단 것일까
저토록 부신 무채색의 집 한 칸
후–욱 불면 날을 듯이 홀홀하고 환한
이 한 순간이
나, 한 평생이 걸릴지도 모르겠다
*우화羽化 : 번데기가 날개 있는 엄지벌레로 변하는 것
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