skip-navigation

한국문학번역원 로고

TOP

Korean Literature Now

Back to Poetry

Two Poems by Moon Tae Jun scrap

by Moon Taejungo link Translated by Oh Ye Sulgo link November 27, 2025

Two Poems by Moon Tae Jun 이미지

Author Bio 작가 소개

문태준

Moon Taejun

Moon Taejun is a program director at the Buddhist Broadcasting System. His writings include Crowded Backyard, Naked Foot, Flatfish, The Growth of a Shadow, and A Faraway Place. He is a recipient of the Dongsuh Literary Award, Nojak Literary Prize, Midang Literary Award, and Sowol Poetry Award. His poetry collection The Growth of a Shadow has been published in English and his poems “My Mother’s Prayer Beads” and “A Faraway Place” were published in The Guardian.

Bag

 

I have been carrying this bag for a long time 

 

In the bag 

 

The beach and its white nape, the waves 

 

A poem re-collected 

 

The light of that day’s last sunset 

 

The sound of farewell trickling down 

 

A lily and a butterfly folded together 

 

A healthy sunflower 

 

A dried leaf on the other side 

 

A word dropped into my ear yesterday 

 

A promise that used to hold me up 

 

The first snowflake of joy and delight 

 

Sadness like a water balloon 

 

Today you are the one carrying it 

 

Walking on the seashore 

 

With me—the lapping waves— 

 

In the bag

 

 

Under the Bead Tree

 

I ran under the bead tree to hide from a summer shower 

Heard my tangled breath slowly unspooling, again and again 

 

Lowered my voice a little and listened to the rain 

 

Like brass bowls, my ears brimmed, overflowed with the sound of the rain 

That would’ve been just fine had my ear for words gone dull then and there 

 

It’s been quite a long time since I went under a big tree to hide from the pouring rain 

It is calm enough a place, underneath a big tree 

Crouching under the bead tree, I stared and stared at the glass-beadlike summer rain 

 

Past the bead tree dressed in a bold-colored shirt 

The white teeth of raindrops biting into the fresh air

Translator 번역가 소개

Oh Ye Sul

Oh Ye Sul

Oh Ye Sul is an assistant professor at Seoul National University. She is interested in the ways modern and contemporary poetry intersect with visual and material culture. She has written on the trans-medial affinities between Elizabeth Bishop and Buster Keaton, Eavan Boland’s museal poetics, and the asymmetrical female friendship in Dion Boucicault’s melodrama.

Did you enjoy this article? 별점

Did you enjoy this article? Please rate your experience

Send