White Deer Lake

1.

Nearer the summit, the fainter the scent of gaudy flowers. As I climb, their waists vanish, then their necks, and finally only their faces peek, etched in patterns. Where a chill air matches that of the north, plants vanish, but are resplendent like stars strewn in the August sky. Fall evening shadows, stars light up in the bed of flowers. Stars move, I am bone-tired.

2.

I have revived after wetting my throat with the lovely fruit of mountain orchids.

3.

A white birch turns into a skeleton beside another white birch. I won't mind turning white as a birch after death.

4.

In a demon-deserted desolate corner, ghostly flowers turn blue in the face.

5.

At 6,000 feet, horses and cows mingle with men. Horse with horse, cow with cow, a pony follows a cow, a calf a mare - but they part.

6.

A cow had a hard time at first calving. In confusion she ran a hundred ri downhill to Sogwipo. The motherless calf moos, following persistently after a horse or a climber. Thinking of having to entrust our children to a strange mother*, I wept.

7.

Orchid's fragrance, oriole's call, whistle of Cheju birds, sound of water skittering over the rocks, pines at the ruffle of a distant sea. Among the ash trees, camellias, and overcup oaks, I missed my trail and emerged on a path winding around the white rock covered with creepers. I run into a mottled horse, which does not back away.

8.

Flowering ferns, bracken, bellflowers, wild asters, umbrella plants, bamboo, manna lichens, alpine plants with starlike bells - I digest them, am drunk on them, and fall into a doze. Yearning for the crystalline water of White Deer Lake, their procession on the range is more solemn than clouds. Beaten by showers, dried by rainbows, dyed by flowers, I put on fat.

9.

The sky rolls in the blue of White Deer Lake. Not even a crayfish stirs. A cow skirted around my feet disabled with fatigue. A wisp of chased cloud dims the lake. The lake that reflects my face all day is lonesome. Waking and sleeping, I forgot even my prayers.

* refers to the Japanese colonisers

Chong Chi-yong (translated by Peter H. Lee)

from Modern Korean Literature - An Anthology (University of Hawaii Press)