明河初艶別書堂
錦水邊山驛路長
鴻雁後飛過我去
秋風秋雨滿江鄕
Wild Geese Clamoring
Kim Taek-yeong (1850-1927)
At the twinkling of the milky way, I leave the village school.
It is a long way off to Byensan via Geumgang.
When wild geese fly ahead of me overhead,
A riverside village is filled with the autumn wind and rain.
Trans by JeoYong Noh
-A Note on the Poet
Kim Taek-yeong was born in Gaeseong during the late Joseon Dynasty. He displayed his precocity in ancient classics as well as classical poems from his early childhood. Under the government of Premier Kim Hong-jip in 1894, the poet entered into officialdom as a historian. After the Eulsa Protection Treaty of 1905, he exiled into China and devoted himself to writing history and studying classical Chinese literature while living in the reaches of the Yangtze river.