Status Updates From A History of Korean Literat...

istg this book is making me cry. and it's all thanks to my professor for making me read this shit.
although it is well written 😭

"When autumn moon enters my room
and crickets chirp on the couch,
a long sigh and salty tears
in vain make me recall the past."
( by Hô Nansôrhôn)

"Better to die
and become a butterfly.
Stop at each flower,
rest upon each branch,
with scented wings,
and light upon his cloak.
He may not remember me:
yet I will follow him."
(by Chông Kûgin)

"Do not boast of your speed, O blue-green stream running by the hills:
Once you have reached the wide ocean, you can return no more.
Why not stay here and rest, when moonlight fills the empty hills?"
(by Hwang Chini)

"You drink wind to empty yourself,
Imbibe dewdrops to cleanse.
Why do you get up at autumn dawn
And keep crying so mournfully?"
(by Yi Illo)

"Were the pearls to fall on the rock,
Would the thread be broken?
If I parted from you for a thousand years,
Would my heart be changed?"
(Anonymous)

"Were I to build a bamboo hut in the ice,
Were I to die of cold with him on the ice,
Were I to build a bamboo hut in the ice,
Were I to die of cold with him on the ice,
O night, run slow, run slow, till our love is spent."
(Anonymous)

"Cry, birds,
You cry after you wake.
I’ve more sorrow than you
And cry after I wake.

[...]

At what place is this stone thrown?
At what person is this stone thrown?
Here no one to hate or love,
I cry being hit by a stone."
(anonymous)

"I only chant painfully in the autumn wind,
For I have few friends in the wide world.
At third watch, it rains outside.
By the lamp my heart flies myriad miles away."
(Ch'oe Ch'iwôn)

"The moon that pushes her way
Through the thickets of clouds,
Is she not pursuing
The white clouds?"
(Master Ch'ungdam)

"We know not where we go,
Leaves blown, scattered,
Though fallen from the same tree,
By the first winds of autumn."
(Master Wŏlmyŏng)

"You said you would no more forget me
Than the densely green pine
Would wither in the fall.
That familiar face is there still.

The moon in the ancient lake
Complains of the transient tide.
I still glimpse your figure,
But how I dislike this world."
(Sich'ung)