Remnants: IV & Other Poems
By Nansŏrhŏn
Translated by Ian Haight & T’ae-yong Hŏ
Remnants: IV
Pure gold, molded preciously,
crafts a resplendent crescent moon;
given by my husband’s parents for marriage,
it binds my red silk skirt.
Today, my husband, I give you leave,
and endear you with a potpourri charm.
I won’t mind you losing it in on the street,
but never tie it to another woman’s breast.
Lakeside Song: I
Willows hang, threading the long banks for ten li—
over water, the scent of fully bloomed lotus envelops a traveler’s clothes.
The moon’s sublime luminescence mounts clouds, floats on the southern lake—
courtesans intone beloved poems, impassioned.
Small Lingering Joys: I
A snow orchid trembles near my window.
Once, its petals, fragrant—
brushed by an air of harvest,
the inflorescence wanes in frost.
The unfulfilled leaves, though lush, succumb.
The scent, so sweetly,
achingly, endures—
tears moisten my sleeves.
Nansŏrhŏn (penname “White Orchid”) was a sequestered noblewoman who lived during the sixteenth century in Korea. Considered by many Korean scholars to be Korea’s greatest female poet, she died at the age of twenty-seven.
Ian Haight’s collection of poetry, Celadon, won Unicorn Press’ First Book Prize. He is the editor of Zen Questions and Answers from Korea, and with T’ae-yong Hŏ, he is the co-translator of Borderland Roads: Selected Poems of Kyun Hŏ and Magnolia and Lotus: Selected Poems of Hyesim—finalist for ALTA’s Stryk Prize—all from White Pine Press. Other awards include Ninth Letter’s Literary Award in Translation and grants from the Daesan Foundation, the Korea Literary Translation Institute, and the Baroboin Buddhist Foundation. Poems, essays, interviews, reviews, microfiction and translations appear in Barrow Street, Writer’s Chronicle, Hyundai Buddhist News, Full Stop, MoonPark Review and Prairie Schooner. For more information please visit ianhaight.com.
T’ae-yong Hŏ has been awarded translation grants from the Daesan Foundation and Korea Literature Translation Institute. With Ian Haight, he is the co-translator of Borderland Roads: Selected Poems of Kyun Hŏ and Magnolia and Lotus: Selected Poems of Hyesim. Working from the original classical hansi, T’ae-yong’s translations of Korean poetry have appeared in Runes, New Orleans Review and The Atlanta Review.