Korean Short Stories
Song Chanho Wild Roses 찔레꽃 Translated by Wayne de Fremery
Information This work was previously published in New Writing from Korea . Please contact the LTI Korea Library. library@klti.or.kr
Wild Roses Go to the tangle of wild rose bushes, you said, when you left home before the wedding that spring morning. Shaving an eyebrow in the mirror, I was sure I'd forget you before a crescent moon rose in its place. In town, the wedding hall would have been noisy; the bride would have cried tears of joy. I hurried toward the thicket to read the letter you left under a white bowl turned upside down. I read some of it, but couldn't finish. Time passed. While I wandered, twenty years went by in unfamiliar cities. A gong sounds and we jump on stage, startled. In the bushes on the hill near home, there is the faint white light of that soup bowl; Then, as now, the flowers were white, white like the dumb. Without eyebrows, without even eyebrows, a May snake sobs in the thicket.
Copyright 2008 Literature Translation Institute of Korea
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