I have several masks.
Before my wife and son,
Before friend, poet, child, adult, man, woman,
On each occasion I quickly switch to another mask
Lee Gil-Won, an eminent poet from Korea, the Land of Morning Calm, shares his poetry
Poet Lee Gil-Won has served as a director of International PEN and as the chairman of International PEN Korea Center. He is currently an advisor to Exiled North Korean PEN, the editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Literature and Creation, and an editorial advisor for the literary magazine Minerva. He has published numerous poetry collections, including Self-Portrait of a Hahoe Mask, Meditation on a Few Ginkgo Nuts, Sitting on an Eggshell, One Morning, Becoming a Tree, Heyri Psalms, Sunset Glow, Mask, and Adonis Amurensis, among many others. He has also authored a theoretical book on poetry titled The Practice and Theory of Poetry Writing. Additionally, he has published English poetry collections such as Poems of Lee Gil-Won, Sunset Glow, and MASK, as well as French and Hungarian translations of his works, including La Rivière du Crépuscule (French) and Napfény Palota (Hungarian). Throughout his career, he has received numerous literary awards, including the Korea Culture and Arts Award, the Cheon Sang-byeong Poetry Award, the Yun Dong-ju Literary Award, the Seoul City Cultural Award, the Poets’ Choice Award, and the Korea Christian Literature Award, among many others.
Mask
MaskI have several masks.
Before my wife and son,
Before friend, poet, child, adult, man, woman,
On each occasion I quickly switch to another mask
From the collection I carry on my back.
Nobody has seen my naked face.
One day,
While I lay comfortably without a mask,
My wife saw me.
She shuddered,
Saying I looked repulsive.
Oops, I thought, and put the mask back on
Vowing never again to forget.
This autumn,
In the moonlight so bright it was sorrowful,
I thought no one would see,
So I quietly removed my mask and looked at the sky.
I looked at the stars.
God, who knows my face well,
Descends on the moonlight
And dries my tears.
***
Courtesy to Home
Courtesy to HomeLove
Your life setting out on a long journey.
Even the magpie, building a house strong enough
To resist rain, wind and storm,
Even the ant, building a house a hundred times bigger than its own body,
Bear and raise their young
In a home thus built as if in prayer,
Holding out on love alone.
Then if life had no love,
What meaning would a palace have?
Home, like an oasis for camels trudging through the desert.
Be thankful for a day well spent,
Returning home at dusk after a day’s work.
Laugh together with your loved ones,
And relish being alive,
As if there will be no tomorrow.
This is your courtesy to your home
Until that day the journey ends,
And you open the door to the comfort of the grave,
The final place of rest.
(Translator: Poet Mr. Lee Gil-Won)
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