Cho Ji Hoon
Translated by Sekyo Nam Haines
White Butterfly
A star-worship song
on a flower-blossom night—
a small funeral hymn
turns my heart to autumn.
After the joyful song dies,
a white butterfly quietly vanishes—
O, you are gone, you unforgettable white petals,
you delicate symbol of mourning!
Ail on, my aching heart
where tears rain down—
my artless tears
fall silently.
A sad flute plays
in the flower-faded night.
Sekyo Nam Haines reads Cho Ji Hoon’s poem “White Butterfly”
Cho Ji Hoon Born in 1920, Cho Ji Hoon is a canonical poet of modern Korea and a renowned traditionalist of Korean aesthetics. Although his poetry is written in a modernist free verse form, his poems resonate with the deep root of Korean literati Sijo and have an intense local flavor, imbued with the sounds, smells and colors of pre-industrial Korea. In 1939, at age 19, Cho Ji Hoon published his first poem in the literary magazine MoonJang. In 1946, he published his collection of poetry, Cheongnok Zip (청록집) alongside the poets Park Mokwohl and Pak Doo Zin. They were known as “Cheongnokpa,” the Green Deer Poets. A professor of Korean language and literature at Korea University for 20 years, Cho Ji Hoon served as the president of the Korean cultural society affiliated with the university and president of the Korean poet’s association. He received numerous literary awards, published five poetry collections, and many books related to Korean literature and culture.
Sekyo Nam Haines Sekyo Nam Haines is a poet, translator from Cambridge, MA. Her translation, Bitter Seasons’ Whip: The complete Poems of Lee Yuk Sa, was published in 2022 (Tolsun Books). Her poems appeared in the Constellations, Off the Coast, and Lily Poetry Review, and elsewhere. Her translations of Kim Sowohl’s poetry appeared in The Harvard Review, The Brooklyn Rail: In Translation, Ezra, and Circumference. Her translations of Cho Ji Hoon appeared in many literary journals including Asymptote’s translation Tuesday blog, The Tampa Review, Guernica Magazine, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Common, Rhino, LIT Magazine, Los Angeles Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, Golf Coast Journal.