HAN YONG-UN [9859]

Han Yong-Un

Manhae (Nació el 29 agosto 1879 y murió el 29 junio 1944) fue un coreano budista reformador y poeta. Manhae era su seudónimo, su nombre de nacimiento era Han Yu-Cheon, pero es universalmente conocido por el nombre que le fue dado por su instructor de meditación en 1907.

Manhae nació en Hongseong en lo que hoy es Corea del Sur. Antes de ser ordenado, se vio involucrado en la resistencia a la influencia japonesa en el país, que culminó con la ocupación japonesa 1905-1945. El mismo año que comenzó la ocupación de 1905, Manhae fue ordenado como monje budista en el Templo Baekdam en el monte Seorak.

Como escritor social Manhae pidió la reforma del budismo coreano.

La poesía de Manhae trata tanto el nacionalismo como el amor sexual. Una de sus colecciones más políticas fue Nimui Chimmuk, publicada en 1926. Estos trabajos giran en torno a las ideas de igualdad y libertad, y ayudaron a inspirar a las tendencias a la resistencia pasiva y la no violencia en el movimiento de independencia de Corea.

PROPORCIÓN INVERSA

¿Tu voz es el silencio?

Cuando no cantas, se oyen claramente tus canciones.

Tu voz es el silencio.

¿Tu rostro es la oscuridad?

Cuando cierro mis ojos, se ve claramente tu rostro.

Tu rostro es la oscuridad.

Tu sombra es la Iluminación?

Tu sombra se refleja en la ventana oscura después de ponerse la luna.

Tu sombra es la Iluminación.

(Trad. Kim Hyunchang)

El silencio de amor

Mi amor se ha ido. Ah, mi amor se ha ido.
Se marchó, sacudiéndome, y rompiendo la verde luz de la montaña a lo largo del pequeño sendero hacia la arboleda de arces.
La vieja promesa, firme y brillante como flores áureas, se la llevó la brisa como polvos fríos.
La memoria del primer beso afilado ha retrocedido cambiando el curso de destino.
Tu voz dulce me ha dejado sordo, y tu cara fina me ha dejado ciego.
El amor es la finalidad humana; así, temí nuestra separación cuando nos encontramos por vez primera. Pero esta separación ha sido demasiado repentina y mi corazón ha reventado con fresca tristeza.
Hacer de la separación una fuente de lágrimas inútiles no hará sino dañar el amor mismo; por ello, he vertido la tristeza desesperada en un barrilito de nueva esperanza.
Al igual que tememos partir tras habernos conocido, creemos también en vernos tras haber partido.
Ah, mi amor se ha ido, pero yo no lo he dejado irse.
Un canto de amor que no puede aguantar su propia música ronda sobre el silencio de mi amor.

IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING

The beloved is not just the one you love; the beloved is the all you long for.

If all living things are the Buddha’s beloved, then philosophy is Kant’s beloved. If spring rain is the rose’s beloved, Mazzini’s beloved is Italy. Not only do I love the beloved, but the beloved loves me.

If love is freedom, the beloved is freedom. Is there not a fine restrictiveness in this lovely word freedom? Do you have a beloved? If you say yes, then you have not a beloved, you have the shadow of self.

I am a lost lamb, full of longing, wandering back from the darkling plain. In this spirit I write these poems.

THE SILENCE OF MY LOVE

My love left, ah, ah my loving love left.

Smashed the green mountain light; broke from me to walk

the narrow track that leads to the autumn forest.

The oath of old, once strong and radiant as a golden flower,

changed to cold dust, flew off on a puff of wind.

The memory of that first piercing kiss,

the kiss that reversed destiny’s needle,

retreated, disappeared.

I am deaf to my love’s fragrant voice, blind to my love’s flower face.

From the moment we met, I worried about leaving, for love is a human thing;

I even warned against the possibility. But parting came so abruptly,

my heart went into shock; it burst in new grief.

I know, however, that the way to the realization of love

is to refuse to turn parting into a well of idle tears;

so I transferred the power of my ungovernable grief;

I poured it over the infant head of new-born hope.

And just as we worry about leaving when we meet, so also when we leave,

we believe we will meet again.

Ah, ah, my love left, but I did not send my love away.

Love’s song is indomitable: it circles the silence of my love.

OBEDIENCE

Others say they love freedom; I prefer obedience,

not that I do not know freedom, but that I desire to be obedient to you.

Obedience, when free, is sweeter than the sweetest freedom.

This is my happiness.

But should you ask me to obey another, this

I cannot do, for to obey another means not to obey you.

THE ZEN MASTER’S SERMON

I heard the Zen master say,

Suffer not the pain of being bound by love’s shackles;

break the bonds of love; your heart will know joy.

The Zen master is very foolish!

His words belie the truth: to be bound by the bonds of love

may be painful, but to break the bonds of love

is more painful than dying.

To be bound tightly in love’s servitude is to be freed.

In servitude the great liberation is attained.

My love, I thought the love bonds by which you bind me

might be weak, so I doubled the bond strands

by which I love you.

WAKING FROM DREAMS

If you are my love, then love me: night after night

you come to my door – I hear your footsteps –

but you never come in, you just leave again.

Is that love?

I have never shuffled outside my love’s door;

perhaps my love has all the love.

Were it not for the footsteps, I would not have wakened from dreams:

dreams would have ridden the clouds in search of my love.

BE ONE WITH ME

Love, if you want my heart, you must take me too.

Make me one with you.

Don’t just give me pain, give me your heart. And give me

the you whose heart you are: make yourself one with me.

Then, with all my heart, I will love the pain you give me.

PEARL

I went down to the sea to gather shells. You tied up my skirt:

it was getting mud-splashed, you said.

When we got home, you said I was like a child,

playing tricks while gathering shells.

You went out and bought me a diamond.

That day I found a pearl: I placed it in your inner pocket.

Wherever you go, take the pearl with you; don’t lend it,

not even for the briefest moment.

REGRETS

I did not love you tenderly while you were here:

I had more belief than love, more prudence than joy.

My cold heart,

the constraints of poverty,

your illness

combined to keep us apart.

Thus, my tears when you left were of regret rather than parting.

ALTERNATIVES

Come, my love! Come, or just simply go! This coming back when you’ve gone, this turning back when you’re on the way is squeezing out my life without giving me death.

If you must rebuke me, love, do so in a loud voice. Don’t rebuke me with silence: the silent rebuke sticks an ice needle in my sick heart.

Love, if you’re not going to look at me, turn away, close your eyes. Don’t give me that side-eyed glare. The side-eyed glare giftwraps a thorn in the cloths of love.

AN EMBROIDERY SECRET

I’ve made your clothes anew:

I’ve made a coat, I’ve made a robe, I’ve made a set of pyjamas.

What I haven’t done is the embroidery on the small pocket.

The pocket is badly finger smudged

because my pattern is to work, lay aside, work and lay aside.

Others think I have no needlework skills;

no one knows my secret.

When my heart is sick and sore and I work on the pocket,

my heart follows the gold thread through the eye of the needle.

A limpid song flows from the pocket; the song becomes my heart.

I have as yet no treasure worthy of the pocket.

It is not for reluctance of the work that I haven’t finished;

it is for wanting to finish that I cannot finish.

THE FERRYBOAT AND THE TRAVELER

I am the ferryboat;

you are the traveler.

You stomp me with muddy feet;

I take you in my arms and cross the river.

Through waters deep, shallow, fast,

I cross the river with you in my arms.

When you don’t come, I stand in the wind,

I face the snow and the rain: I wait for you from night to day.

Once across the water, you go your way without a backward glance.

But I always know you will come.

Day after day I wait for you: I grow old and decrepit.

I am the ferryboat;

you are the traveler.

LOOKING FOR THE COW (modern shijo)

Looking for the Cow, a symbol of the search for transcendence, was the name of the poet’s house on Inwang Mountain. The house faced away from the residence of the Governor-general so that the poet would not suffer the indignity of having to look every day at a symbol of servitude.

No cow’s been lost;

it’s silly to look.

Were it really lost,

would it be finders keepers?

Better not look at all;

then I won’t lose it again.

THE OLD FISHERMAN (modern shijo)

That old man fishing

in clear mountain water,

reed rainhat slanted low,

what was his dream?

Funny how he jerks the rod

startled by the sound of a bird.

That old fisherman, rod in hand,

seems to have forgotten the affairs of the world.

Yet even he has cares,

else why cup his chin and sigh?

Is it white hair reflected in the waves

that makes him sad?

EARLY SPRING (modern shijo)

Was last night’s drizzle

so heavy? Young grasses,

are you so weighed down by raindrops

you cannot get up?

Don’t you know you’ll be

sun kissed in the morning?

COSMOS (modern shijo)

Cosmos fluttering

in the gentle autumn breeze,

are your petals wings,

your wings petals?

Yours is the soul

of a butterfly!

LOVE (modern shijo)

Deeper than spring waters,

higher than autumn mountains,

brighter than the moon,

harder than a stone.

Asked about love,

this is what I’ll say.

ROCK WATERFALL (hanshi)

The waterfall rushes down the autumn mountain;

I am ashamed of this remnant of spring in a transient world.

Night and day it flows: whither does it want to go?

I look back at a thousand of the ancients.

THE WAY THINGS ARE (hanshi)

At the bottom of the mountain sunlight is bright, bright;

at the top of the mountain snowflakes fly, fly.

Shade and light, each wondrous in its way;

the poet so empty his heart could break.