of such a man.
Yi Ok-gyeong, however,
not content with her husband,
had relations with the officials of the Japanese legation:
Hakihara
Kuniwake
Hasegawa.
Her domestic servants used to take her photo
and thrust at the crotch with a stick,
saying, This is a hole for Japs.
A hole for Japs.
Reading the
Maecheon Yarok
*
I lingered a moment at this part.
* Maecheon was Hwang Hyeon’s pen-name, Yarok means ‘an unofficial history’. Hwang Hyeon later committed suicide when Joseon fell to Japan.
Together with Pastor Jeong Jin-dong
A young woman like very fresh young greens,
like young greens
newly washed three times in a flowing stream,
one such young woman,
having dropped out of middle school,
came and sat down in the chilly office
of the Cheongju Urban Industrial Mission.
The room grew even quieter.
Her job was to help a pastor
as bland as long-stored buckwheat jelly
or cold bean curd.
No end in sight once over the edge of the cliff.
Endless days of service.
On her face clean like young greens
appeared a freckle then another and another
like birds singing early in the morning
keeping each other company.
Writing petitions,
writing letters of complaint,
copying out manifestos,
drawing up agreements,
she also had to make visits here and there,
taking long-distance buses over bumpy, dusty roads.
With her face, which never knew make-up,
she devoted all her youth to service
and her laugh was always as it had been
a thousand years before.
No need to know her name.
Kim of Geumho-dong
He has no shoulders.
Shoulderless, he sits
on a rocky ridge in Geumho-dong.
He gazes across the river
at the newly erected apartments in Apgujeong-dong.
Talking nonsense is his job.
Once evening comes,
the lights in the apartments across the river shine bright.
He gazes across at those lights.
He tries to rise,
but his legs have grown stiff, so he has to sit down again
on rocks that have neither blood
nor tears.
An out-of-season mosquito whines
but it has no strength to bite
and he has no blood to suck.
The two of them are in the same state,
Kim of Geumho-dong and the mosquito.
However,
Kim’s son
has the best shoulders in Geumho-dong,
a young tough who gives petty thieves a hard time.
Nothing like his father. Nothing.
King Jicheollo
He was first to be given a posthumous name, Jijeung.
He was first to be given the title
Wang
(King)
instead of
Maripgan
.
Jicheollo, the 22nd king of Silla,
had Kim as his family name;
his given name was Jidaero or Jidoro.
This king’s prick was said to be well over one foot long.
Unmarried,
he sent agents all over the country
to find him a wife.
At the foot of an old tree in Muryangbu
two dogs
were fighting and biting each other
over a gigantic turd the size of a big drum.
The agents wanted to know whose it was.
They discovered that one village girl
had produced it in the woods
while doing the washing.
As might be expected, that girl was over seven feet high.
She became the wife
of the bachelor king,
a heaven-sent spouse.
The candle was never put out
night after night.
They had two sons
and son Beopheung inherited the throne.
King Beopheung
and his queen both became monks.
Weol-san the Seon Master
A broad-minded fellow
travelling through Manchuria during Japanese rule,
one day he heard the Diamond Sutra being chanted
and became a monk.
Forming an association with other monks,
such as Cheongdam, Seongcheol, Hyanggok,
he sat in the full lotus position
in Bongam-sa temple in Mungyeong,
not lying down to sleep.
With his tall stature he played a major role
in founding the Jogye Order,
then he withdrew into the mountains.
No brilliant poems,
no dazzling sermons.
He simply sat unspeaking, keeping his mind focused,
inside the sound of the wind among Mount Toham’s pines,
yesterday,
today,
tomorrow.
Sat upright,
back sheerer than a cliff,
stunning.
King Gyeongmyeong of late Silla
Everything was in decline.
All the
Yi Ok-gyeong, however,
not content with her husband,
had relations with the officials of the Japanese legation:
Hakihara
Kuniwake
Hasegawa.
Her domestic servants used to take her photo
and thrust at the crotch with a stick,
saying, This is a hole for Japs.
A hole for Japs.
Reading the
Maecheon Yarok
*
I lingered a moment at this part.
* Maecheon was Hwang Hyeon’s pen-name, Yarok means ‘an unofficial history’. Hwang Hyeon later committed suicide when Joseon fell to Japan.
Together with Pastor Jeong Jin-dong
A young woman like very fresh young greens,
like young greens
newly washed three times in a flowing stream,
one such young woman,
having dropped out of middle school,
came and sat down in the chilly office
of the Cheongju Urban Industrial Mission.
The room grew even quieter.
Her job was to help a pastor
as bland as long-stored buckwheat jelly
or cold bean curd.
No end in sight once over the edge of the cliff.
Endless days of service.
On her face clean like young greens
appeared a freckle then another and another
like birds singing early in the morning
keeping each other company.
Writing petitions,
writing letters of complaint,
copying out manifestos,
drawing up agreements,
she also had to make visits here and there,
taking long-distance buses over bumpy, dusty roads.
With her face, which never knew make-up,
she devoted all her youth to service
and her laugh was always as it had been
a thousand years before.
No need to know her name.
Kim of Geumho-dong
He has no shoulders.
Shoulderless, he sits
on a rocky ridge in Geumho-dong.
He gazes across the river
at the newly erected apartments in Apgujeong-dong.
Talking nonsense is his job.
Once evening comes,
the lights in the apartments across the river shine bright.
He gazes across at those lights.
He tries to rise,
but his legs have grown stiff, so he has to sit down again
on rocks that have neither blood
nor tears.
An out-of-season mosquito whines
but it has no strength to bite
and he has no blood to suck.
The two of them are in the same state,
Kim of Geumho-dong and the mosquito.
However,
Kim’s son
has the best shoulders in Geumho-dong,
a young tough who gives petty thieves a hard time.
Nothing like his father. Nothing.
King Jicheollo
He was first to be given a posthumous name, Jijeung.
He was first to be given the title
Wang
(King)
instead of
Maripgan
.
Jicheollo, the 22nd king of Silla,
had Kim as his family name;
his given name was Jidaero or Jidoro.
This king’s prick was said to be well over one foot long.
Unmarried,
he sent agents all over the country
to find him a wife.
At the foot of an old tree in Muryangbu
two dogs
were fighting and biting each other
over a gigantic turd the size of a big drum.
The agents wanted to know whose it was.
They discovered that one village girl
had produced it in the woods
while doing the washing.
As might be expected, that girl was over seven feet high.
She became the wife
of the bachelor king,
a heaven-sent spouse.
The candle was never put out
night after night.
They had two sons
and son Beopheung inherited the throne.
King Beopheung
and his queen both became monks.
Weol-san the Seon Master
A broad-minded fellow
travelling through Manchuria during Japanese rule,
one day he heard the Diamond Sutra being chanted
and became a monk.
Forming an association with other monks,
such as Cheongdam, Seongcheol, Hyanggok,
he sat in the full lotus position
in Bongam-sa temple in Mungyeong,
not lying down to sleep.
With his tall stature he played a major role
in founding the Jogye Order,
then he withdrew into the mountains.
No brilliant poems,
no dazzling sermons.
He simply sat unspeaking, keeping his mind focused,
inside the sound of the wind among Mount Toham’s pines,
yesterday,
today,
tomorrow.
Sat upright,
back sheerer than a cliff,
stunning.
King Gyeongmyeong of late Silla
Everything was in decline.
All the
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