You who sing the song of God in silence—
Why are you both earth and sky?
Seok Yeon-gyeong
Poet and Literary Critic Seok Yeon-gyeong was born in Miryang, Gyeongsangnam-do, Republic of Korea, in 1968. She made her literary debut as a poet in Poetry and Culture and as a literary critic in Poetry and the World in 2013. She has published five collections of poetry, including Days of the Eagle, Flash, Icebreaker, Building a Blue Wall, Tang Tang, and The Universe of the Garden. Her works of literary criticism include Variations on Ecopoetics. She has also published The Round Mirror, a collection combining temple poetry and photography; Forest Path, a collection of healing aphoristic poems; The Garden of the Universe, a selection of garden-themed poetry; Suncheon Garden Culture with Poetry, a collection of poetry, photography, and prose; and la forêt du temple d’or, a selection of her poems translated into French. She received the Young Poet Award from the Song Su-gwon Poetry Literary Award and currently serves as the director of the Yeon-gyeong Institute for Humanities, Culture, and Arts.
The Song of God
Why are you cloaked in blue?
Your blue wings beating softly,
You stand amid the biting cold of the snowstorm,
Covering fear with the ringing in your ears.
Silence covers the knife-sharp wind.
Why are your lips so deeply red?
Among fruit trees
Dripping with juice,
Is what you shed the tear of a withered eye?
Look at the monsoon.
The rain falls only as sound,
While the dry desert makes the sound of waves.
Come and find my grave—
A grave that does not yet exist.
There, you who lie dead
Dance alive, glowing red.
The heartbeat of the universe
Springs from the grave
And rises into the sky.
You who sing the song of God in silence—
Why are you both earth and sky?
신의 노래
당신은 무엇 때문에 푸릅니까
푸른 날개 펄럭이며
눈보라 추위에 서서
이명이 공포를 덮습니까
적막이 칼바람을 덮습니다
당신 입술은 왜 붉디 붉습니까
즙이 흘러나오는
과일나무 사이에서
당신이 흘린 것은 메마른 눈물입니까
장마를 보십시오
비는 소리로 내릴 뿐
마른 사막은 물결 소리를 냅니다
나의 무덤을 찾으세요
아직 한참 없는 무덤을
그 안에 죽어 있는 당신이
살아서 붉게 춤추는 것을
우주의 심장 소리가
무덤에서 뜅겨나와
하늘로 떠오릅니다
신의 노래를 고요로 부르는 당신
왜 당신은 땅이자 하늘입니까
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