Our fresh table, prepared with sincerity

A lively story unfolds

It seems like a dinner where the water color will fade…

Ms. Han Ina, a poetess from Korea, the Land of Morning Calm, shares her poem  

Poet Han Ina was born in Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea. She graduated from Cheongju National University of Education and is currently an active member of the Korean Poets Association, the Korean Writers’ Association, and the Catholic Writers’ Association. Her major works include Water Color Table, Letters Written at Florian Café, Glass Self-Portrait, Sitter, Layers of Autumn Leaves, Three Days of Running Away Outside the Surangama Sutra, and When the Right Shade Becomes Me.

She has received the Seoul Literary Award Grand Prize, the Korean Poetry Award, the Naeryuk Literature Award, the Republic of Korea Poet Award Grand Prize, and the Yeongchuk Literature Award. Additionally, her poetry collection was selected for the Sejong Book Sharing program. She currently serves as the Vice President of the Korean Association of World Literature.

Water Color Table

She set the table in the shade of a tree

In the water garden.

The river before us shimmered,

The meadow cast shadows of green.

Only we had aged so much.

Our fresh table, prepared with sincerity

A lively story unfolds

It seems like a dinner where the water color will fade

Today, I decided not to waste myself,

Not to live too fiercely.

A flat garden of water with no steps,

The blue-shadowed meadow,

And me, lying beneath the tree,

Claiming the sky.

That is my everything today

The quiet peak of my life,

Where no one is sad.

I, a shadow of a shadow, smile.

A friend long gone wanders

The fields of the afterlife, unable to come.

Stories that fluttered for ages

Settle, at last, like a handful of wind.

***

물빛 식탁

그녀가 물의 정원 나무 그늘에 식탁을 차렸다

눈앞 강물이 반짝이고 풀밭은 초록의 그림자

우리만 나이를 한참 먹었다

정성을 차린 우리들의 싱싱한 식탁

찰진 이야기 술술 풀려나오는

물빛 사윌 만찬인 듯

오늘 하루 나를 낭비하지 않기로 했다

너무 힘껏 살지 않기로 했다

계단이 없는 평평한 물의 정원 저 푸른 그림자의 풀밭

나무 그늘에 누워 하늘을 독차지한 게

오늘 내 전부

아무도 슬프지 않아 지루한 내 생의 정점

그림자의 그림자인 내가 웃는다

죽은 친구는 저승 벌판 헤매느라 오지 못하고

오래 펄럭였던 얘기 한 줌 바람으로 정결했다