[One Thousand Characters a Day] Park In-hwan's 'Sewol-i Gamyeon'

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Today's featured modern poem is "When Time Passes" by Park In-hwan. It is known as his last work, composed impromptu at a drinking party one week before he died of a heart attack. While it can be seen as a sentimental poem based on the author's actual romance, considering the poet's life tormented by the wounds of the Korean War, it is also regarded as a poem expressing the tragedy and loss experienced by our nation due to the war. The poem contains 224 characters.

Now I have forgotten that person's name,

But his eyes and lips remain in my heart.

When the wind blows

And the rain falls,

I cannot forget the night

Under the streetlamp's shadow outside that windowpane.

Love departs,

The past remains?

By the summer lakeside,

In the autumn park,

On that bench,

Leaves fall,

Leaves turn to soil,

Covered by leaves,

Even if our love disappears.

Now I have forgotten that person's name,

But his eyes and lips are in my heart,

In my cool heart.

- Park In-hwan, <When Time Passes>