“Stories Are Held in the Land” by Bridgette Guerzon Mills

By Cho Ji Hoon, translated from Korean by Sekyo Nam Haines

On the hill, by the road,

there is an ownerless grave

and a tavern.

Though the weariness weighs me down,

my pocket is empty.

The sky, endlessly high,

on the branch of an old dead tree,

the flock of crow wails

into the twilight.

A traveler walks alone,

the stars spring up anew.

Over the hill, by the road,

there is a grave for the living,

a home for the dead.

영넘어 가는 길에

임자 없는 무덤 하나

주막이 하나

시름은 무거운데

주머니 비었거다

하늘은 마냥 높고

고목 가지에

서리 가마귀 우지짖는

저녁 노을 속

나그네는 홀로 가고

별이 새로 돋는다

영넘어 가는 길에

산 사람의 무덤 하나

죽은 이의 집

Cho Ji Hoon (1920-1968) is a canonical poet of modern Korea. A renowned scholar of Korean aesthetics, his poetry is rooted in the literary Sijo, began in 12th century and has an intense local flavor of pre-industrial Korea. A professor at Korea University for 20 years, Cho Ji Hoon published six poetry collections.

Born in South Korea, Sekyo Nam Haines’s first book of translation of Korean poetry, The Bitter Seasons' Whip: The complete Poems of Lee Yuk Sa was published in 2022, April (Tolsun books). Her works appeared in Lilly poetry review, The Massachusetts Review, Hayden’s Ferry. Sekyo lives in Cambridge, MA.