Jeong Ho-seung's poem (24)

Myeongdong Cathedral

Translated by Brother Anthony and Susan Hwang

A place where a fool turns into a saint,

where a saint turns into a fool,

where even stones turn into candles,

where candles then turn into bread.

A place one can abruptly leave and then return to,

that one can return to then quietly leave again,

where the corpses of dead flowers bear fruit,

where the fragrance of dead flowers is fragrant even from the greatest distance.

Seoul is like litter

and this present age already has no seasons

and although he died before I died,

the man rides a camel down the white snowy road

and, following that man who’s turned into Myeongdong Cathedral,

though she lived before I lived,

It’s a place where the mother who has lost her mother comes searching,

a place where the father who has lost his father comes and kneels,

a place where the sound of bells that have lost their bells

eternally resounds.

The image of Myeongdong Cathedral, a place of prayer at the heart of Seoul, and memories of Cardinal Kim, fool and saint, combine in a mixture of images evoking the pain which so many bring there in prayer.