The Orchid Door: Ancient Korean Poems by Tr. Joan S.Grigsby - HTML preview

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Inscribed on The Gate of Honor to Hyang-Nang

Anon.




In the year 1690 A.D. a report of Hyang-Nang’s tragic death was made to the king by the magistrate of the district. A gate of honor was then erected to her memory. The master scholar of the period was ordered to inscribe a verse thereon.


Only the gentle breezes of the spring

Caress her little pair of lonely shoes.

Where are you now, O sad and fragrant flower?

It is too late to make a song for you.

Not all the singing of a hundred years

Could bear away the loneliness you knew

In one uncounted hour of falling tears!