trees

Dream of Things 1
-Dream of a Tree

Kissing the sunlight rolling down his leaves
the tree dreams of his energy, and
Cheek to cheek with rain falling from above, the tree
sounds the dreams of his blood, and
With the azurine spirits of the wind whistling by his branches, the tree
hears his life resonating, waving in the breeze.

poem by Chong, Hyun-jong (Korean poet)
trans by Pearls and Jades

Here is how the original poem looks:

사물의 꿈 1
-나무의 꿈
그 잎 위에 흘러내리는 햇빛과 입맞추며
나무는 그의 힘을 꿈꾸고
그 위에 내리는 비와 뺨 비비며 나무는
소리내어 그의 피를 꿈꾸고
가지에 부는 바람의 푸른 힘으로 나무는
자기의 생이 흔들리는 소리를 듣는다.

Sometime during my academic career in Korea, I spent a Summer semester translating Korean literature into English. The task was to put together a portfolio by the end of the term. We were free to translate whatever works we wanted to, but as the class lasted for about 4 weeks, we could not tackle a long novel. So, I chose to translate 2 short stories and a bunch of poems. The above translation of Chong, Hyun-jong's "Dream of Things 1" is the product of that semester. He was, and still is, my favorite Korean poet, and that poem in particular struck me not only because I loved the rhythm and the images the poet brings alive, but because just that moment in my life, I was in LOVE with trees. As my campus was quite leafy and woody, I would walk around with a camera in hand, trying to capture the sunlight that shines through and over and under. It did not matter if the leaves were green or red, if the trees were leafy or bare. I actually loved the winter trees as well, for the nakedness of the tree accentuated the very beauty of the branches. So, a tree poem. And some photographs taken by me, of the trees at Yonsei University Shinchon campus.

And here, is another one of my translations of his work. This translation was not for the class I mentioned earlier, but for Dr. M's ecocrit course seminar paper, which I wrote in 2011. 

"In the Forest" (trans. by Pearls and Jades)

1. Ye the most handsome of all things

 Now also green is

 Your brain and your heart.

 Large veins and small vessels yonder

 are the spring of the birds' notes/ and the nest of wings!

 (Chirping is the small vein/ and flying is the large vessel)

 2. The dream of my life's been

to bed one of those female birds

 and to lay a half man-bird

 With the bird's torso and the legs of man!

Bird, my charm

Tree, my charm. 

If my post today got you interested in this poet, you can go to Amzon and look for a collection of his poems, entitled DayShine. 

Tomorrow, I might just go ahead and take pictures of the bare trees. They won't look as cold, since it snowed today and blanketed the branches!

2013. 2. 4.