A gull
And solitude with the solidity of a thing
The sun is cold; here are no months and years.
From now on I will desire nothing;
I will leave my desires in the foams of the sea.
When the dark swell of the sea gave back
The sullen face of the dead, expressionless,
I could not cry out that I was among the living;
I only slid down the surface of deep-lying rocks;
On my belief born out of a will.
When, the blooding mist turning to rain on the Pacific,
Gulls with black wings and black lips circled ay my eye-level,
I felt their phantom laughter, saying;
Illusions, illusions. I no longer knew
The ratio of what remains and what is lost.
A few years back when we crouched thinking of fear,
Here battleships sank and men died in heaps
But all sleep now in the dark depth of the sea.
Since I am still among the living,
What do I see played on the screen of consciousness?
Wind rises. O, blow wind, blow wind!
Clinging to the rails of the deck
I smoke a cigarette for memory’s sake.
On this immense solitude where does the smoke drift?
O, night, let sleep come to me
Between this vast expanse of the sky and the waters.
(Inwhan Pak)
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Based on Topics: Night Poems, Fear Poems, Laughter PoemsBased on Keywords: battleships, expressionless, ratio, solidity