POETIC DELIGHTS BY IM SOL NAE-KOERA
1-Blue Butterfly
The sky and the earth are my coffin, and the sun, moon, and stars are my burial gifts"
Zhuangzi once said.
I envied him.
I envied the silkworm
that sheds its stiff cocoon of flesh
to become a butterfly of the soul.
I envied Kübler-Ross,
who cared for dying children,
carrying a plush caterpillar that, when flipped,
transformed into a butterfly,
a small miracle for her young patients.
But what moved me even more
was the final moment of her own funeral—
her children opening a small box before the coffin,
releasing butterflies into the air.
And when the mourners opened their envelopes,
blue butterflies fluttered out,
rising toward the sky.
What are we to do with such beauty?
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: Swiss-born psychiatrist and world-renowned authority on
thanatology (the study of death and dying).
2-The Scarlet Light Universe
The persimmon tree lights up scarlet lanterns on its branches.
Its black veins show quite an age.
From the earth, rooted deep, its energy spent time and again,
it rests every other year—this tree.
The slender twigs bearing scarlet fruits snap easily,
yet they are unmistakably maternal—tender and strong.
When thunder roars and rain pour down in torrents,
the deeply soaked bark turns dusky brown—
the very skin of heaven’s people.
Each time memory meanders in twisted paths,
the hues of childhood flutter like feathers in a storybook.
Red—but not the red of passion,
yellow-tinged—but not with youth.
A universe within the universe.
Scarlet, arriving at the heart’s core
Ah, how bright it is.
3-Lungda;
The peaks of the Himalayas stretch like barriers.
The Guge kingdom suddenly emerges
Over the barren earth.
The frescoes pour out light as if they were
Painted only yesterday.
The way to the Kailas, regarded as Mount Sumeru
Since thousands of years ago -
Somewhere on the path that goes like a string
The grand Lama’s chanting of a sutra
Sitting in a meditation cave
Strikes my heartstrings.
Born as humans to be treated to a sky burial,
We, who had no tangible relation,
Today inscribe this all-important meeting
In the earth before we depart.
We bury here
The songs of the salt that runs through the desert,
The sobbing songs of the yaks,
The fluttering multi-colored banners of lungda.
And you and I, who are naught,
All scattered like clouds.
Places we cannot know, faraway places
We cannot reach
Scatter and spread in all quarters.
At the end of the puer tea field
Spreading endlessly
At the end of a sublime journey
We’ll hopefully return through prostration-prayers and
Meet each other on the ancient tea route.
Each time the wind blows, the lungda flaps;
Each time the lungda flutters,
The sounds of the bells of the tea-traders’ horses
Reverberate around our ears this day.
Translated by Chang Soo Ko
Jayu Munhak in 1999. Her poetry collections include The QR Code of a Leaf, Amazon,
That Transit Station, The Cry of an Awakened Amazon, Hong Nyeo, and many
others. She has also received numerous literary honors, including the Yeongnang Poetry
Award, the Korean Literary Critics Association Award, the Korean Lyric Poetry Award,
selection as a Sejong Excellent Book, the Poet’s Poet Award, and the Buddhist Literary
Writers’ Award.
She is a Vice President of the Korean Association of World Literature.
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