Celebrated Korean poems (24)

Ku Sang (1919 – 2004)

Today again news came of a friend's death.

Well, we all have to go,

some sooner some later.

I hope my turn comes soon.

Is it fear of the pain before we die

that makes death so threatening?

Surely there is always euthanasia?

But the dread of something after death

makes that a problem too.

The lights and darks of that other world.

While I evoke in this way

the afterlife, my life today

is so much amiss.

Surely, if I am really concerned about the afterlife,

shouldn't I already begin to live that afterlife,

or rather, Eternity,

today?