My Hometown, Eomae-Gok Poem by Kinsley Lee

Nam-Jeon Kim

Walking the winding way on the hill,
Eomae-Gok, my hometown vill.

A remote countryside, the rock-stones
Where I used to play and frolic as a child on coal shovel
And guarded by ancestors' tombstones.

By the cozy love like the whispers to the ears
The warm-hearted vill,
And the gingko tree, in the vill,
Which is a guardian spirit for three hundred years.

If I were to go abroad for study,
The parents' gestures to the corner of the mountain
Afraid that the kimchi-jar break to be ruddy.

Must be the worthy guys
The words are clouded up in my ears
And be moist with tears,
Maybe it tears up on my parents' eyes,

(May,2023. Translated by Kinsley Lee)