Untitled translation (4): rhyming

by Kim Sowol · translated by Brother Anthony of Taizé

I know you’ll leave me one fine day.
You’re sick of me, is what you’ll say;
dumb and numb, I’ll send you on your way.

Ahead of you I’ll scatter showers
great armfuls of azalea flowers
from Yongbyon mountains’ springtime bowers.

And as you go, each step you make
lightly on the flowers that break
will echo as the leave you take.

I know you’ll leave me one fine day.
You’re sick of me, is what you’ll say;
but I’ll not weep then, come what may.

Brother Anthony (An Sonjae). “Translating Korean Poetry,” Modern Poetry in Translation 13 (1998). https://anthony.sogang.ac.kr/Azaleas.htm.