Flower Watch
I go back to my home country of Korea.
I walk along the riverside where clovers grow.
Seunhee and I frequently came here as children--
We were poor, but happy together.
Sometimes we squatted on the clover fields
where we searched for them all day long
—believing it might bring us luck.
But it was not easy to find a four-leaf clover.
Sometimes we bet on who would find one first; but she always won
Sometimes she asked me to sing or kiss her on her cheek,
or make a watch from the clover flowers to adorn her wrist.
At first I didn’t know how to create this thing,
but soon realized that to make one watch
two flowers must be equally joined together.
Now I stand alone in the vast clover plains
in the dusk where flowers are in full bloom.
I call Seunhee loudly and loudly, but there is no answer.
Only a lonely echo.
The Sorrow
I’m at the window with the green tea she sent me.
I’m drinking the leisure hour of the afternoon
contained wholly in the tea
that has brewed little by little.
The sorrow spreads silently like a shadow
and drifts like a wind;
Appearing unexpectedly from time to time,
Though it never seems to stand in the way of the wide steps of life.
Now it comes together
with the fragrance of the tea,
then ebbs from me.
Like a mass of flour dough in the hands of a baker,
could I knead this sorrow till it is pliable?
Or like soft down on a thistle,
it possible for it to blow away completely?
While I drink at leisure
she is with me silently.
Spreads over the quiet surface of the cup with fragrance
and slips into my heart.
Han-Jae (H.J.) Lee studied poetry at Chung-Ang University and Korea University, and in the United States at theAlmaden Community Center (San Jose); and at the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center workshops in New York. His first book, A High-Rise Apartment, was published in Korea in 2008. Co-publisher of three poetry anthologies, his poems have appeared in several Korean literary magazines. H.J. has been writing poetry in English since 2004; and in 2013 his collection, The Golden Gate Bridge and Other Natural Wonders was published in English. His poem, “Cobweb,” appeared in the Catamaran Literary Reader, Winter 2015 issue. He lives in San Jose, CA.
I go back to my home country of Korea.
I walk along the riverside where clovers grow.
Seunhee and I frequently came here as children--
We were poor, but happy together.
Sometimes we squatted on the clover fields
where we searched for them all day long
—believing it might bring us luck.
But it was not easy to find a four-leaf clover.
Sometimes we bet on who would find one first; but she always won
Sometimes she asked me to sing or kiss her on her cheek,
or make a watch from the clover flowers to adorn her wrist.
At first I didn’t know how to create this thing,
but soon realized that to make one watch
two flowers must be equally joined together.
Now I stand alone in the vast clover plains
in the dusk where flowers are in full bloom.
I call Seunhee loudly and loudly, but there is no answer.
Only a lonely echo.
The Sorrow
I’m at the window with the green tea she sent me.
I’m drinking the leisure hour of the afternoon
contained wholly in the tea
that has brewed little by little.
The sorrow spreads silently like a shadow
and drifts like a wind;
Appearing unexpectedly from time to time,
Though it never seems to stand in the way of the wide steps of life.
Now it comes together
with the fragrance of the tea,
then ebbs from me.
Like a mass of flour dough in the hands of a baker,
could I knead this sorrow till it is pliable?
Or like soft down on a thistle,
it possible for it to blow away completely?
While I drink at leisure
she is with me silently.
Spreads over the quiet surface of the cup with fragrance
and slips into my heart.
Han-Jae (H.J.) Lee studied poetry at Chung-Ang University and Korea University, and in the United States at theAlmaden Community Center (San Jose); and at the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center workshops in New York. His first book, A High-Rise Apartment, was published in Korea in 2008. Co-publisher of three poetry anthologies, his poems have appeared in several Korean literary magazines. H.J. has been writing poetry in English since 2004; and in 2013 his collection, The Golden Gate Bridge and Other Natural Wonders was published in English. His poem, “Cobweb,” appeared in the Catamaran Literary Reader, Winter 2015 issue. He lives in San Jose, CA.
