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1. Untitled One day I took a pebble froman East Sea beach and put it in my pocketbut it jumped back out, shrieking.As it hurtled off into the distance,it failed to make the slightest sound.It had no idea of the strong emotions I was longing for.Out at sea are flocks of seagullsready to peck out and swallow facile words. By Ko Un. Born in 1933 in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, Ko Un is perhaps Korea’s foremost living writer.

2. Parting Creates Beauty by Han Yong'un Parting creates beauty.There is no beauty of partingin the ephemeral gold of the morning;nor in the seamless black silk of the night;nor in the eternal life which admits no death;nor in the gorgeous celestial flower that never fades.O love, if there is no parting, I cannot come backto life in laughter after tearful death.O parting!Parting creates beauty.

3. HILLS SURROUND ME By Mok-Wol Pak The hills surround me, and Tell me to live my life,Sowing the seeds,Tilling the land.Build a house below a hill,Bear sons, bear daughters;Plant pumpkins along the mud walls.Live like wild roses,Live like wormwood.The hills surround me, andTell me to live like clouds,Tell me to live like winds;Life will soon wane like the moon.

4. The Moon Every time the moon rose, she prayed.Finally Wol-nam's mother, at forty, bore a son.In dreams before pregnancy,she swallowed the moon.After her son was born, Wol-nam's motherwould lose her mindwithout failevery time the moon rose.Late at night, washing dishes,she'd smash one bowl-the moon then hid in a cloudand the world grew blind.

5. NIGHT SHINY DAYS By Dong-Myung Kim Night isA lake shrouded in blue fog.I am a fishermanOn sleep's sailboat,Fishing dreams. by Jung-JuSuh On dazzling shiny daysLet us long for the loved ones.The autumn flowers have fallen andThe tarnished green is tinted by maples.What if it snows?What if the spring returns?If I die and you live?If you die and I live?

6. ROCK by Chi-Hwan Yu When I die,I will become a rock,never touched by compassion, joy or anger.While being torn down by wind and rain,It will only whip itself inwardsin eternal, impersonal silence,and at last forget its own existence;Floating clouds, distant thunder!Though it may dream,it will never sing.Though broken in pieces,it will never utter a word.I will become such a rock.

7. New Year’s Day by Ko Un This is the loneliest spot in the country on New Year’s Day.I’ve spent the whole long winter here,devoid of everything.It’s been a week already since the boats stopped running.Cheju Island goes on getting smalleruntil sad eyes cannot see it.Don’t overturn the glass from which you drank.Once you’re past thirty,you can make friends with an empty glass.Tell me, wind: what can I hope for on New Year’s Day on this remote island?After some tedious, very tedious readingby the light of a small oil lamp,I mutter a single drunken linebut vowels alone can’t make it audibleas far as that widower’s tomb out there. So, wind: let none live here but those who will die here.Endurance is the greatest journey of all.Even if the boats are completely overwhelmed by the gale,I’m going to set out, though I’ve got no overcoat.Tell me again, wind: what more can I hope for on New Year’s Day?From the guts of a boarding house, coughs fleeone after another, that’s all I can hear.One day, they’ll return, transformed into the local dialect.Ah, New Year’s greetings, buried alive by Cheju Island’s wild whirlwinds.