Jeong Ho-seung's poem (27)

Grant Them Happiness

Translated by Brother Anthony and Susan Hwang

I hear the sound of those who died yesterday

being reborn today.

Grant them happiness.

Those who died today

will be reborn tomorrow and smile baby smiles.

Those babies reborn today

those who will be reborn tomorrow

have faces that are already old.

Grant them peace.

The poet seems to evoke Buddhist ideas of rebirth but might simply be indicating that the faces of new-born babies sometimes look wizened like old people, and wishing them well. A longing for recovered innocence echoes here.