Anon,
This poem was taken from the third chapter of the “Book of Poetry,” one of the oldest of all Korean books. The custom of burying the living with the dead, to which the poem refers, prevailed until the year 502 A.D.
Over the Dragon Rock the moon appears.
How can I bear to watch her beauty rise
Where stars are like ten thousand frozen tears?
Where is Prince Chagoo now? The Silent Hall
Rings to his footsteps while the dim lights ebb
Low in the lamps of death, and shadows fall.
They fold around and draw him to his doom.
The full moon sets behind the willow tree.
Does no faint glimmer pierce that awful gloom?
Dawn breaks above the mountains’ jagged rim
The forest stirs with blossom-scented breath.
No perfumed wind can bear new life to him.
The oriole wakes. I wonder why she sings
So gaily all day long beside my door,
When one who loved so well the sound of wings
Hears her no more.