Sayings from Confucius

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Cold weather & Seoul Shijo.

With the weather at times turning cold (-1C a few nights ago!) I've decided to post an old poem of mine. A haiku, in the English, with Korean translation by me.

Early autumn green
wind whispering other colors in cold
trees lean nearer to listen.

이린 카을 녹
바람 다른 색으로 차갑에 속삭인다
나무들이 기대어 그 소리를 듣는다.
-- Matthew Thivierge.

I'll get my wife to check my spelling later. My spelling is usually terrible.
I do love the word 속삭인다: to whisper. Its a word you _can_ whisper more smoothly than 'whisper'.

Heres a Shijo from a poet who wrote mostly in the 60s. Sadly the book I'm taking him from doesn't have the original Korean. Still, its a great read. As the poems in the book have translated so well, I'm dying to get my hands on the original Korean for them! Suffice: here's one by Seo-Pol. I'm sure many visiting Seoul or foreigners living there can relate to this one:

Seoul
Today I've come up to Seoul
and purchased a thousand acres of loneliness.
I wish to scatter it like mist;
sprinkle it like drizzling rain.
Penniless are my pockets, but I have a friend's
name card in its place.
-- So Pol (b. 1939).

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