When twilight brims over,
Children who tended and herded cattle
Wander in search of their missing cows,
And oh, how sweet it was to hear the cuckoos call among the birds.
Ms. Yunjeong Heo, a poetess from Korea, the Land of Morning Calm, shares her poem
Poet Ms. Yunjeong Heo was born in Sancheong, South Korea. She published the poetry magazine Mack and served as its publisher and editor for 11 years. She is an executive of Korea PEN center. She has published numerous poetry books, including A Seorae Village Woman, One Hundred of One-Line-Poem and This Day Cheers; a Special Broadcast. She received the 1st Sinsaimdang Literary Award and the Korea PEN center Prize for Literature in 2016, as well as the 20th Korean Writers’ Association Award in 2023.
Nostalgia
NostalgiaInsects’ cries,
Even the weeping of blood,
Fade away on the wooded hills,
Each night silence sweeps over them like waves across a desert.
The nostalgia soaked into my body paints my old hometown
The rice field ridges,
The furrowed ditches.
When twilight brims over,
Children who tended and herded cattle
Wander in search of their missing cows,
And oh, how sweet it was to hear the cuckoos call among the birds.
***
향수
풀벌레
피울음마저
죽어간 언덕숲을
밤마다 적막은 사막처럼 파문지우고
몸에 밴 노스탈지어는 고향집을 그린다
논두렁
고랑 고랑
황혼이 듬뿍차면
소치는 아이들 소를
찾아 헤매고
뭇새들 두견새 울음 듣기도 좋았더니만
_________________
