Azaleas

by Kim Sowol · translated by Jaihiun J. Kim

If you go away
Through with me
I will quietly let you go.

I will gather azaleas in armfuls
At Yaksan hill in Yongbyon
To scatter them on your path.

Tread with a tread,
Light and gentle,
On the flowers as you go.

If you go away
Through with me
Never will I weep though I perish.

Kim, Jaihiun J., editor and translator. Korean poetry today: 450 poems since the 1920’s. Seoul: Hanshin, 1987.