[One Sip of a Book] Lee O-ryeong's Seowon Poem 'Let Me Fly Once Again'

Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of a book, while others instantly reach the reader’s heart, creating a connection with the book. Here, we introduce such meaningful sentences excerpted from books. - Editor’s note

This book records the last wish of the late leading intellectual of our time, the late Lee O-ryeong. It contains the teacher’s earnest hope that all the people of the nation would once again soar into the dazzling sky with the arrival of the New Year 2022. The preface was completed by adding the teacher’s oral explanation to the poem “Let Me Fly,” written by him 14 years ago. Additionally, thirteen manuscripts on “thoughts” that had been shelved for quite some time due to the publisher’s circumstances were added and compiled into one volume.

I don’t know since when, but a small pair of bells has been lying on a corner of my desk. I happened to notice them and shook them absentmindedly, and unexpectedly, they made a clear sound. I had thought they were just ornaments to hang on a Christmas tree, but they turned out to be real bells plated with some kind of metal. The one that produces a high-pitched sound is the silver bell, and the one that rings with a slightly lower tone is the gold bell. I had never paid much attention to them, but the moment they made a sound, I was struck with the same shock as when discovering something new. How long had that sound been hidden under dust? Before my hand touched them, they might have been like mere stones, or perhaps they had never existed at all and were just emptiness. Now, they are fluttering their wings like living birds, flying in the bright daylight.

In the old days, even the death of an insignificant person was a solemn and majestic event, making it the biggest news. So when someone died, the death bell was rung, and people were curious about whose death the bell was announcing. They paused their work for a moment, prayed with reverence for the deceased, and bowed their heads to show sorrow. But John Donne says not to ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for me, for my own death bell. No one can be a complete island. I am not an island alone. No matter how much I try to be isolated, humans are connected to each other. I am not an island. I am part of a continent. Even the smallest grain of sand or clod of earth is connected to the vast continent. That is why John Donne said, “If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less,” meaning the earth becomes lighter and smaller by that much when a grain of sand or a small clod is swept away by the waves from the sea….

The word “sipeo” (want to) that is not even spelled correctly

The Korean word “sipeo” is a language of unbearable desire

When attached to the stomach, it means “I want to eat,” and the stomach aches

When attached to the ear, it means “I want to hear,” and the ear aches

When attached to the eye, it means “I want to see,” and the eye aches

When attached to the heart, it means “I want to see,” and the heart aches

“With the brush of the heart, I paint and offer, and bow before the Buddha…”

Like the difficult-to-decipher Idu characters in “Bohyeonshipiga,” it becomes a longing that is hard to interpret.

Long ago, a Korean youth dragged to this Japanese land

scratched words on the coal mine wall with his fingernails.

Eomuni bogo sipeo (Mom, I want to see you)

Let Me Fly Once Again | Written by Lee O-ryeong | Seongandang | 208 pages | 14,800 KRW