Love’s Silence

Love is gone, gone is my love.

Tearing herself away from me she has gone

on a little path that stretches in the splendor of

a green hill into an autumn-tinted forest.

Our last oath, shining and enduring

like a gold-mosaicked flower,

has turned to cold ashes, blown away

in the breath of wind.

I remember her poignant first kiss and its memory

has wrought a complete change in my destiny,

then withdrawn into oblivion.

I hear not her sweet voice; I see no her fair looks.

Since it is human to love, I, alert, dreaded a

parting to come when we met.

The separation came so suddenly

it broke my heart with renewed sorrow.

Yet, I know parting can only destroy our love if

it causes futile tears to fall.

I would rather transfer the surge of this sorrow

onto the summit of hopefulness.

As we dread parting when we meet, so,

we promise to meet again when we part.

Though my love is gone, I am not lost to love;

an untiring love-song envelops the silence of love.

Han Yong-un

*The first poem that struck a chord when I was still waging an all-out futile war against pimples.  I’m taking a break, so this will have to do.  The author of the poem is one of Korea’s most beloved poets.