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Sijo Samples
Traditional Korean Sijo (pre-19th century)
includes both Korean and translated verse
My horse neighs to leave
Anonymous
My horse neighs to leave here now, but you plead with me to stay;
the sun is dipping behind the hill, and I have far to go.
Dear One, instead of stopping me, why not hold back the setting sun.
Untitled
U-Taek (1262-1342)
청산에 눈녹인바람 건듯불고 간데없다
적은덧 빌어다가 머리위에 불리고저
귀밑에 해묵은 서리를 녹여볼까 하노라
The spring breeze melted snow on the hills, then quickly disappeared.
I wish I could borrow it briefly to blow over my hair
and melt away the aging frost forming now about my ears.
Untitled
Yang Sah Uhn 楊士彦 (1517-1584)
태산이 높다하되 하늘아래 뫼이로다
오르고 또 오르면 못오를리 없건만은
사람이 제 아니 오르고 뫼만 높다 하더라
Soaring high though a mountain may be, it is a mere mound beneath Heaven
Climb and climb, and no summit cannot be reached
Yet people stay at its base saying the mountain is too high.
Untitled
Hwang Jin-i 황진이 (1506-1544)
동지달 기나긴 밤을 한 허리를 버혀 내여
춘풍 이불 아래 서리허리 넣었다가
어른 님 오신 날 밤이여드란 구비구비 펴리라
I will break the back of this long, midwinter night,
Folding it double, fold beneath my spring quilt,
That I may draw out the night, should my love return.
Contemporary Sijo (20th - 21st century)
Untitled
Larry Gross, the Sijoforum
It would seem to be a crow in the shade of a small maple;
or perhaps its a trick of the second full moon of the month.
But then, a man-made streetlight confuses my midnight reflection.
Untitled
Larry Gross, the Sijoforum
Rising early each morning,
I let her into the warm barn;
I pour oats, clean her stall,
then fork more hay into the trough;
When she kicks my hand away,
why do I think of my wife?
Zuisen-ji (Kamakura: January Second)
Carmen Sterba, the Sijoforum
Climbing stairs to Zuisen-ji, I go deeper into the hills.
In the garden of the temple, narcissus lean against stones.
This imprint on my mind, a thought rings true, even stones have friends.
Untitled
Debi Bender, the Sijoforum
beneath wisteria clusters, hidden, I wait in purple.
perfumed by petals, these longings rise, twine, intertwine and rise...
rise to break apart among clouds...silently break among clouds.
EVEN NOW
Elizabeth St Jacques, Around the Tree of Light (1995)
Just us two in the photograph
his arm around my thin shoulder
That strong limb I then leaned against
would break so many falls
We stood like this but only once
but his strength holds me still
Untitled
Parnassus
Carefully I lifted it from the branch, an empty cocoon,
took it home and mounted it center stage on the mantel.
Hear it speak? What does it say of living, what of the dead?
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