One Candle
--after Yun Dongju
One candle --
I smell its fragrance fill my room.
Before the altar of bright hope was destroyed
I beheld the pristine offering.
Her body, like a goat's rib,
and even her mission
put to the flames.
Blood and tears drop like white jade.
Candlelight flickers from the desktop
a wild waving fairy dance.
Like a falcon-fleeing pheasant
darkness through the window flees.
So now I inhale
the great fragrance of the offering.
--tr. Duane Vorhees
--after Yun Dongju
One candle --
I smell its fragrance fill my room.
Before the altar of bright hope was destroyed
I beheld the pristine offering.
Her body, like a goat's rib,
and even her mission
put to the flames.
Blood and tears drop like white jade.
Candlelight flickers from the desktop
a wild waving fairy dance.
Like a falcon-fleeing pheasant
darkness through the window flees.
So now I inhale
the great fragrance of the offering.
--tr. Duane Vorhees
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