Thursday, April 16, 2015

From Winter Tree to Spring Tree Hwang Ji-woo

From Winter Tree to Spring Tree 

 
Hwang Ji-woo


A tree is a tree
In its body.
With its whole body the tree becomes a tree.
All the body naked,
At thirteen degrees below zero,
At twenty degrees below zero,
Rooting the whole body into the earth,
Lifting its head,
Standing as a defenseless naked tree,
Standing in a posture of punishment, lifting its two hands,
Ah, in a punished body, in a punished life,
Standing up, but
Saying, this is not it, this is not it,
It suffers in all of its soul,
It burns inside, inside the body,
Resisting, rejecting, from below zero,
To above zero, five degrees above zero,
Thirteen degrees above zero, moving above earth,
It pushes, it pushes up,
Till all its body breaks down–
Breaking down, blisters forming,
Breaking out, with its hot tongue,
It pushes the shoot
Slowly, steadily,
Suddenly the shoot becomes a green leaf,
Bumping into a blue April sky,
The tree becomes a tree in its whole body.
Ah, finally, at last,
The blooming tree is a blooming tree
In its body.

*Translated by Dr. Chae-Pyong (“J.P.”) Song 송재평 교수 &  Anne Rashid
Korean Poetry in Translation  https://jaypsong.wordpress.com

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