Jeong Ho-seung's poem (34)

A Paper Elephant

Translated by Brother Anthony and Susan Hwang

I travel along the road, riding on a paper elephant

with a body completely hollow.

There was a paper elephant that had silently carried

a baby Buddha in the lotus lantern parade

lying abandoned with its trunk cut off

in a Jongno back alley,

so I am traveling along atop a trunkless paper elephant.

For the days still left to be lived,

just as birds build their nests on days when the wind is strongest,

when storms rage at their wildest,

I build this moment’s shingle-roofed house, then set it alight.

Since life is not possible without discarding,

since everyone has to discard in order to live,

I set fire to the hollow paper elephant

and scatter a handful of ashes.

* * *

A discarded paper elephant remaining after celebrations of Buddha’s Birthday evokes the necessity of letting go of everything in order to advance through life and beyond it.