Jeong Ho-seung's poem (3)

To Daffodils

Translated by Brother Anthony and Susan Hwang

Don’t cry.

To be lonely is to be human.

To go on living is to endure loneliness.

Do not wait in vain for the phone call that never comes.

When snow falls, walk on snowy paths,

when rain falls, walk on rainy paths.

A black-breasted longbill is watching you from the bed of reeds.

Sometimes even God is so lonely he weeps.

Birds perch on branches because they are lonely

and you are sitting beside the stream because you are lonely.

The hill’s shadow comes down to the village once a day because it, too, is lonely.

And a bell’s chime resounds because it, too, is lonely.

The Korea Times has begun to publish Jeong Ho-seung’s poems every Thursday. Jeong is the most widely read and well-loved poet in Korea today. His work expresses the joy and sorrow of life in ways that are immediately accessible to people of all ages. “To Daffodils” is probably Jeong’s most famous poem. On first reading it seems to be about the inevitable loneliness that is a condition of all beings, even of God. The loneliness “celebrated’ in this poem is not mere romantic melancholy pleasure in solitude. The poem reminds the reader that loneliness must not be allowed to become an obstacle to positive living. Readers might wonder why the title is “Daffodils” although they are never mentioned. Another name for those flowers is “Narcissus” and narcissism is the opposite to the attitude taught by the poem; to experience loneliness is to realize one’s need of others with whom to overcome the pain of solitude.