Sijos

        Tree of Unhappiness

   Kim Sang – yong (1592 – 1637)

   (Translated by Graeme Wilson)

On broad leaves of pau-low-nia

The one and only tree

Whereon the phoenix will set foot

The rain falls heartlessly.

The rain’s sad tapping overhead

Compounds my weight of grief.

Who now could have the heart to plant

Trees of so broad a leaf?

               Pomegranates

         Sin Hum (1566 – 1628)

    (Translated by Graeme Wilson)

It rained last night, the pomegranates

Red and oranges

Have all burst into flower.

 

Not to be comfort,

I sit in this cool pavilion

Set in a lotus lake

And under its glass-bead curtains wait

For my closed heart to break.

                   Girl in the Rain

             Anonymous (18th century)

         (Translated by Graeme Wilson)

Her violet cloak clutched round her head,

As quickly as she can

She runs through rain-fall to the pear bloomed

Village and a man.

What blandishments, I wonder,

What whispers, what untrue

But wonderful promises

Have soaked that silly through.