[One Thousand Characters a Day] Yoon Gong-gang's 'At Night Sea - Paldido (Palmi Island) Sea'

Editor's NoteYun Gon-gang, who debuted in the 1930s, started as a Gyeonghyang school poet but soon wrote works influenced by decadent and satirical trends. After liberation, he pursued Korean national and traditional sentiments. He depicted the conflict between colonial reality and the self through "solitude," and mainly wrote poems that consciously embraced "darkness" and expressed it poignantly within emotions. This reflects the bleak historical environment under Japanese colonial rule and the poet's desire to escape such reality. Word count: 224 characters.

Embraced by the vast
arms of the wide sea,
into and out of
the black clouds,
I gaze at the crescent moon hiding and flowing.

This evening, my boat
leans eastward, eastward,
rocking as it drifts away.

The night wind erases
black wrinkles on the water,
already gloomy,
the waterfowl’s cry makes it even more sorrowful,
along with the fierce roar of the waves－

Ah... this evening,
I want to sink
into the water like a whale,
gathering all the tears of the people,
and sink without remorse
to the bottom of this endless sea...

- Yun Gon-gang, <At Night Sea - Yao Island Sea>