Sky, Wind and Stars by Yun Dong-ju a translation

[soryang]

To my dying day I will look to heaven,
without a hint of shame,
Even tho' the leaves in the wind,
Tormented me.

With a heart singing of stars,
All things destined to die,
I must love,
This is the way I must walk
The path provided.

Tonight too, the wind brushes the stars


This is a famous poem by Yun Dong-ju. It's the prelude to a book of poems by that author, said to be one of Korea's favorites. He died tragically at age 27 in 1945 just before the liberation according to Dr. Petersen one of America's experts on Korean literature. Dr. Petersen just did a youtube presentation on the poem on his Frog Outside the Well channel. I had tried to interpret the poem over a year ago and recognized it right away. I did not know its historical and cultural significance at the time. I had to correct my interpretation after hearing two translations he presented.

[Karadeniz]

1. No coincidence that everything of a spiritual nature demands love as the Way. Christianity does,

but the false message that faith is the primary factor has created a loophole allowing the masses who can't live the message to pass themselves off as Christians.

[soryang]

2. I thought about how difficult it is to "live the message"

...after I revisited this poem today. In the poem itself the reference to heaven is more secularized. Haneul has a spectrum of meanings from literally sky, the heavens, and god with a small "g" perhaps (the way, destiny). Yun Dong-ju is remembered as an independence activist living during the most challenging times.

[Karadeniz]

3. Very difficult to live the message, but we don't need to accomplish it in one lifetime... whew!!!

[Tucker08087]

4. So beautiful!

I write and I write and I write, and sometimes I touch emotions or experiences of others, but I know that for all of my life and with every scrap of creativity and passion, I will never write anything nearly as beautiful as this. Thank you for sharing. I am going to print it out and put it on my mirror to reflect on its pure beauty every day.

[soryang]

5. thankyou Tucker

...for sharing your reaction. Your creativity is a gift. I could only interpret poetry never write it like you do. Even interpreting a poem is something I hadn't tried since I was in high school until recently. Your so lucky to have the writer's gift.

I just found this poem by chance on twitter on a Korean cultural thread. I should have credited the image (Image source- Jack Jung twitter 10.21.20). When things get rough, I look for a Korean song ( usually an oldie or traditional song) or poem to get me through. Translating them makes me think about the meaning as carefully as I can.

This is one of my favorites:

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/12491921

Thousand Year Rock lyrics: Jang Kyeong-soo 장경수 Music: Jang Ook-cho 장욱조 Original singer: 박정식