Four Poems
(1917-1945)
In 1942, first he went to Rikkyo University to study English literature in Tokyo, Japan, and then moved to Doshisha University in Kyoto. In 1943, he was arrested and imprisoned in Fukuoka Prison, where he died possibly of medical experimentation on 16 February 1945. His collection of poems, Haneul kwa baram kwa byeol kwa si (Sky, Wind, Stars, and Poetry), was published posthumously in 1948. His poetry is noted for the simplicity of poetic diction and the purity of thought.
Prologue
Wishing to hold no speck of shame
Towards heaven until the day I die,
I've suffered,
Even from the wind stirring leaves.
With a heart singing of stars,
I should love all things that are dying.
And along the road given to me,
I must walk.
Tonight, again, the stars are brushed by the wind.
Let's go, go, go
to the brake.
To pick up a moon crust,
let's go to the brake.
A firefly at the old moon night
is a broken crust of the moon.
Let's go, go, go
to the brake.
To pick up a moon crust,
let's go to the brake.
Sister's face
is a sunflower.
No sooner rises the sun,
she goes out to work.
A sunflower
is sister's face.
Her face hung down,
she comes back home.
Baby's Daybreak
At
there is no cock to crow.
Only,
the baby's cry for mom's milk
breaks the day.
At our home
neither is there a clock.
Only,
the baby's fret for mom's milk
tells the time of daybreak.
Translated by J-Y Noh
