Translated by Chae-Pyong Song and Anne Rashid

Photography by Hwang Moonsung

The Blind Singing Couple by Chung Ho-seung

With the snowfall, it was getting dark,
and they lost their way.
On this winter night street without even a snowman
nobody made any visit, so they sang.
There were only some others milling around
out in the world, being snowed upon.
They sang, calming the cries
of the child on the mother’s back
with a long way to go,
the snow falling in large flakes;
they sang, to love the unlovable,
to forgive the unforgivable,
waiting for the snowman.
They sang all the songs of waiting in the world.
Their songs became roads and led the people
walking in darkness, shivering in snow.
They forged a path through the snow
that made it impossible to return.
They sang the songs that love indifference,
till beauty rescues the world from drowning,
till joy visits the despairing.
With a long way to go,
snow falling in large flakes,
singing the songs awaiting the snowman,
they became snowmen on this winter night street–
they became snowmen that will not melt even when spring comes.

맹인 부부 가수/ 정호승

눈내려 어두워서 길을 잃었네
갈 길은 멀고 길을 잃었네
눈사람도 없는 겨울밤 이 거리를
찾아오는 사람 없어 노래 부르니
눈 맞으며 세상 밖을 돌아가는 사람들뿐
등에 업은 아기의 울음소리를 달래며
갈 길은 먼데 함박눈은 내리는데
사랑할 수 없는 것을 사랑하기 위하여
용서받을 수 없는 것을 용서하기 위하여
눈사람을 기다리며 노랠 부르네
세상 모든 기다림의 노랠 부르네
눈 맞으며 어둠 속을 떨며 가는 사람들을
노래가 길이 되어 앞질러 가고
돌아올 길 없는 눈길 앞질러 가고
아름다움이 이 세상을 건질 때까지
절망에서 즐거움이 찾아올 때까지
함박눈은 내리는데 갈 길은 먼데
무관심을 사랑하는 노랠 부르며
눈사람을 기다리는 노랠 부르며
이 겨울 밤거리의 눈사람이 되었네
봄이 와도 녹지 않을 눈사람이 되었네

“서울의 예수” (민음사, 1982)

Chung Ho-seung was born in 1950, in Hadong, Gyongsangnam-do. Since his debut in 1972 with a poem featured in the Korea Daily News, Chung has published many poetry collections, such asFrom Sorrow to Happiness, Jesus of Seoul, and Dawn Letter, which has achieved both critical acclaim and mass appeal. His minimal verse style interweaves the everday and the fantastic, proposing the possibility of lyrical revelation in even the most prosaic encounters.