Ivy

Do Jong-hwan

(Translated by Park Kyung-ri)
<2nd Incheon Asia Africa America Literature Forum)

That is a wall.
Then if feels like just one of those walls,
Then,
The ivy silently climbs the wall.
When it is called a wall of despair,
Without a drop of water, and not a single grain of seed could survive,
The ivy moves forward without haste.
Even a short span is scaled together, hand in hand,
Until all despair is covered in blue,
There is no letting go of that despair.
When we shake our heads before an insurmountable wall,
An ivy leaf leads thousands of ivy leaves,
And eventually conquers the wall.