Ink Wash Painting
The old woman's hand rests
on the neck of the ox as it drinks.
Saying this day too
they spent together,
saying they share swollen feet,
they share loneliness.
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If the old woman is left to plow the field with the ox, it implies that there are no men in the family. The woman watering the ox has had him till the soil all day, and she feels both grateful to him and sorry. The ox cannot understand this even if she tells him, so she expresses her feelings by placing her hand on his neck. This poem captures the beauty of absence, widely known to be an aesthetic property of East Asian painting.
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Mirinae: Korean Poetry
PoetryTranslated from Hangul, here is a collection of poems from South Korea
