Yun Dong Ju Quotes

In the graveyard I imagine someone ... but no one is there. -Moonlit Night

Let’s be happy and hold hands again some other morning

Like a pheasant fleeing a falcon, the darkness has escaped through my window, and I savor the magnificent fragrance of the sacrifice, which fills my room. -A Single Candle

and the reason I am living is only because I am looking for what I have lost. -The Road

The Sky is full to the brim with autumn as the season makes its way to across it. It is as if I had no worries at all. so I could count all the stars nestled in autumn. Yet i cannot quite finish counting all those stars that are settling in my heart one by one, because mornings have a way of coming swiftly, because tomorrow's night is still to come, and because the fire of my heart hasn't burn out yet. I see memories in one star and love in another and loneliness my longings and poetry in each and Mother in another, Mother. Mother, I am trying to call out a beautiful word for each star. Names of the kids I shared desk with in a grade school, such foreign girls names as Pae, Kyeong, Ok, and the girls who have become mothers already, my poor neighbors, the doves, puppies, rabbits, mules, roe deer, Francies Jammes and Rheiner Maria Rilke - I call such names of poets. They are all so far away from me. Just as the stars are ever distant. And mother, you are in North Gando which is so far away. Longing for something I couldn't name, I wrote my own name on this hill which is bright with all the starlight landing, but then I covered it up again with dirt. True, some insects chirp through the night because they lament their shameful names. Yet when spring comes around to my star after winter, even on this hill where my name is buried, shrubs will grow thick as if boasting like the green grass that sprouts on a grave.

Is it a map of the Land of the Stars where Mommy is, which he visited in his dreams? Is it a map of Manchuria where Daddy went, which he did to make money? -The Bed-Wetter’s Map

The roof-tile couple on the palace roof must be longing for lovely, bygone days. Caressing each other’s wrinkled faces, they stare up at the sky without a word. -The Roof-Tile Couple

And I? I want to spread my wings in the northern sky. -Sunset

My heart, reduced to ashes, trembles at the quivering of the papered door. -Heart, 2

The sun is smiling, because it is happy. -Rain in the Sun

People by the sea eat the fish they catch. People in the valleys of the mountains eat the potatoes they roast. People on the stars— what do they live on? -What Do They Live On?

The snow has fallen down, dazzling, so white my eyes blink— blink-blink-blink! -The Snow

The sea is blue and so is the sky. The sea is endless and so is the sky. I throw a rock into the sea and spit at the sky. The sea grins; the sky is mum. -The Two of Them

... jumping off the fence when all I can see is the sky, and keeping our place in history. -Thermometer

My eyes are loosely shut like a small, push-out window. Tonight, love seeps in everywhere, like the dark. -Contemplation

The sea grows more sorrowful under the singing of the sea gulls.... -The Sea

My thoughts this afternoon? Oh, how sleepy I am! -Afternoon in a Mountain Valley

The last breath of a father lonely during his lifetime: Sorrow clouds his closing eyes. -His Last Words

What will you be when you grow up?” “A human being.” -An Impressionist Painting of My Younger Brother

With my heart singing to the stars, I shall love all things that are dying.

—Ah! Youth! Stay there a long time!

With my heart singing to the stars, I shall love all things that are dying. -Foreword

People of the world dance to the song of life which melts their bones. They do not have the time to think about the terror at the end of the song, before the setting of the sun. -Life and Death

Beneath a sky reminiscent of a tent, dancing clouds led noisy showers and thunder, and escaped to the south. [...] A swelling young heart burns with ideals, and on a day of autumn, a day of longing, it scoffs at tears, at the falling leaves. -Blue Sky

[...] longing for his mother’s embrace, intently roams the southern sky on a single wing of nostalgia. -The Southern Sky

The clear river is still flowing, and still I see the sorrowful face in love—the beautiful face of Sooni! -A Youth

And if I go out to look for your footprints among the flowers, snow will fall in my heart for the entire twelve months of the year. -Snowy Map

One. Two. Three. Four. . . . . Such nights indeed are many. -Sleepless Nights

All of them are so far away, like the stars that are infinitely distant. -One Night I Count the Stars

Looking back, I see that I have lost my childhood friends: one and two at a time—all of them. [...] Life is meant to be difficult: it is too bad that a poem comes so easily to me. [...] Extending a small hand to myself, I offer myself the very first handshake, tears, and condolences.

The valley was silent—like the heart of our traveler. -The Canyon

I swim like a small mermaid. Two or three shadows of my body, cast by moonlight and lamplight, wax and wane. [...] Lonesome though I am, shadows in my heart rise, one after the other: blue dreams, rising and falling. -On the Street

It yearns, as I do, for the sound of water, for the sound of the sea. -A Clamshell

The dream has been shattered; the tower has collapsed. -A Dream Shattered

Il tempio dell'amore Suni, quando sei venuta nel mio tempio? Quando sono entrato nel tuo? Il nostro è un tempio dell'amore intriso di vecchie usanze Suni, abbassa i tuoi occhi cristallini di cerva, Io pettinerò i miei capelli arruffati come un leone. Il nostro amore era semplicemente muto. Ah, giovinezza! Prima che la debole fiamma del cero votivo si spenga Corri verso la porta d'ingresso, Suni. Prima che il buio e il vento entrino prepotenti dalla nostra finestra, Porterò con me il mio eterno amore per te, Scomparendo dalla porta sul retro. Ora, tra i boschi hai un lago accogliente, e io montagne scoscese. [Yun Dong-ju]