I will protect you / To keep that one word / I ended up getting hurt badly / My life has been walking unsteadily // As time passes, I know / That reckless promise of my youth, / That pure covenant of love / protected me
---From "That Promise Protected Me"

I like people / So I like to be alone // I like to talk / So I like deep silence // I like shining victories / So I like meaningful failures // (…) I like small everyday things / So I fight against great evils // (…) I like myself / So I like to dedicate myself to loving you
---From "Things I Like"

I once walked / holding a dead puppy / It was heavier than I thought / Even the weight of this small life // (…) Those who died were heavy / Those who truly loved and died / and walked while holding them in my arms / were heavy for a long time // (…) Those who truly loved / but in the end / Could not plant them as green trees / And left them in the wind and the darkness / Live inside me, making me cry for a long time
---From "Holding a Dead Puppy"

Late at night, while filling the fountain pen / that I have been using for 30 years // (…) I smiled slightly, thinking / that your name, fountain pen, which can continue to be used even after 10,000 years / is a bit / embarrassing, / but then you rolled your eyes and sulked // (…) I’m sorry, I’m sorry / For 30 years, you and I / engraved my first feelings with your first pen nib / Walking on the margins of the vast white snowy field / We’ve come this far, step by step // (…) Yes, you can’t write a hundred years’ worth of words / with a tool that lasts 10,000 years.
---From "Fountain Pen"

History works its way / Heaven takes a different path // Even if evil triumphs for a time / Don't be too sad / Don't despair for too long // Because they are now faithfully performing their roles / on the stage of history, revealing / the true nature of lies and sins through themselves // (…) In the darkness, in defeat / Let's walk together silently / Night comes and night comes / (…) Spring comes and a new day comes
---From "On the Stage of History"

People often say / that we live day by day // but in reality / aren't we dying day by day // (...) someday / when I stand before death // what did I want to do to die / who did I want to die next to // the place where I want to die / is the place where I truly want to live // ​​am I living the life I want to live / in the place where I want to die now?
---From "The Place I Want to Die"

Why are you doing this to me / What on earth is the reason // In this world / There are so many things that happen without a reason // (…) There is so much pain without a reason // Life is thrown at you without practice / Misfortune attacks without warning // Nothing comes of honestly working hard / And yet, if you don't find meaning, you can't live // ​​(…) Even if I don't know the reason / I will love and get hurt / and love again until I die
---From "Reason"

Love has no end // If love had an end / How could you still walk through my heart / after so much time had passed // (…) If love had an end / How could the mere thought of your name / take me back to those days // (…) To me, love / has no limits, no defeat, / and not even death // Love is always like the beginning / Love always / has only a beginning
---From "Love Has No End"

Children always know / more / than adults teach / about forbidden things // Children always / betray / more / than adults expect / of things imposed // (…) Children always / endure / much more / than adults think / if left to their own devices
---From "The Truth of Children"

Giving a penny to the rich, saying you are helping them / is the greatest insult to the rich // (…) Giving sympathy and comfort to the youth, saying you are doing it for them / is the greatest insult to the youth // (…) Youth needs a way out, not comfort / The strength to find its own vivid path / It needs the wounds of crazy love, the fighting spirit of resistance // Fight off the epidemic they have spread / that has tamed the youth into a ‘comfort beggar’ / and made the youth addicted to ‘healing addiction’ // Rather than being pitied, let’s change the world fairly / Rather than being comforted, let’s be good friends who encourage
---From "Insult to Youth"

This is Earth in the spring of 2020 / I feel like an alien who crash-landed on a strange planet / (…) Someone / runs to me waving brightly and hugs me // Ah, that’s enough, that’s enough // (…) As a being with my face and my name / I have you who meets me, holds my hand, and hugs me // (…) Because love is a risky embrace / Because revolution is an infection of love / Because hope is a contact with the unknown // (…) If we love, they’ll kill us / But if we don’t love, we’re dead beings
---From "Infected Love"

I like to cry // (…) That true feeling when tears fall / The feeling of falsehood being washed away // How clear is the sky after it pours rain // (…) Doesn’t only crying go down to that deep earth / Cleanse what has piled up / And bring something to life // Love likes to cry / The sky likes to cry / I like to cry
---From "I Like to Cry"

That day, in the back alley of Jongno 2-ga / You, being dragged away, beaten with batons and shields / You turned your head and looked at me // (…) Your eyes / were screaming white / Save me! It wasn’t / Run away, run away quickly! // I couldn’t turn back // (…) From then on, / I ran down the dawn road of the dark era // Surrounded, I, my poetry, / Turned in all directions and fought
---From "I turned my body in all directions and fought"

Taking my first steps into an unfamiliar land / I pray // Wilderness, desert, please accept me / People of this land, who have protected the earth and preserved its stories / Please accept me // Tell me the truth of life that only those rooted in this place in the universe / can understand / Tell me of the moments of joy and the good things / Tell me of the indomitable perseverance that overcame hardship and failure / and the dignity of upright and good humans (…) So, lowering the steps of a traveler / I quietly seep into your life / Please accept me
---From "The Traveler's Prayer"

It's been spring for a year or two since the precious seeds were planted, but / he's still feeling it // (…) I was so suffocated and anxious / so I called Mr. Cho Gyu-sam of the Boryeong Wildflower Farm // (…) Some people wake up when they're struck by lightning and thunder / And some people only speak when they're frozen in a blizzard / There are seeds that take off their clothes and sprout after seven years // (…) When people get angry, the tree dies / When people pretend to be dead, the tree comes back to life / The more precious the tree, the more it likes indifference // (…) I leave the trees and seeds to their own devices / and just come and have some delicious auk soybean paste stew // After hanging up / I look at the trees once, the seeds once / and the sky once / Hehehe, I laugh and stand up // (…) Okay, do whatever you want / Live or drink / The seeds, the trees, the poems, the work, the relationships
---From "The Seed Knows"

When someone cries that it's over, it's over / I silently pat their back / and whisper softly that it's okay, it's okay // I, too, have gone all the way to the end // The end means that something comes out at the end / Something comes out only at the end // Flowers bloom at the end of a branch / The sun rises at the end of darkness / Only at the end of despair does new hope emerge // (...) It comes out at the end / It comes out at the end
---From "Coming Out at the End"

I know that once the heavens opened for you / and God approached you // (…) once you were an artist, an explorer, a poet / once you were a creator, a revolutionary, a seeker / and I know that you are all there now / you just haven't noticed // (…) once, once again / (…) knocking on the window of your heart / you are alive inside of you
---From "Pay Attention"

Heaven // (…) I am your medium, the poet / The pen of the powerless and the mouth of the mute // (…) A milestone for pilgrims who have walked a long way / A piece of rag that wipes the floor of the world's heart / A shovel that plants trees in the wasteland / A hoe and a hand that is an extension // (…) If you do not use me as an instrument of love / If I use love as an instrument / Cut off my head resolutely
---From "There Are Nights Like That"

Life has become longer / No / Lifespan has become longer // Time is short, so I am anxious / Time is long, so I am uneasy // Life is short, old age is long // (…) If I had known I would live this long, / I would have learned differently, worked differently, / and lived differently // (…) With resignation, not renunciation / With pride, not self-esteem / With stubbornness, not generosity // (…) Standing before the court of youth / On the verge of execution // Old age, where the toil and accomplishments of a lifetime / Are denied, ridiculed, and treated coldly / O old age that has become a sin / O harsh old age
----From "Harsh Old Age"

I think I have to go now / Into the distant darkness from which I came // On that road / I will shine a little / Because I loved // (…) I intend to go to the ends of the universe / To the light in the darkness / Because my fuel was enough life / With love, the love that consumed me
---From "I'm going to go to the ends of the universe"

Don't be sad if you walk along a dark path and there isn't a single shining star // (...) The stars you've seen so far / are the light that started hundreds of millions of light years ago // (...) The brightest star is now / running at the speed of light towards you who is desperately seeking the way.
---From "The Stars Come to You"

The artist's downfall begins here: // Seeking profit / Joining hands with power / Following the crowd // The poet is a revolutionary / There are three principles: // Be poor / Resist / Be lonely
---From "The Poet's Resolution"

The reason you keep falling down / is because you have something to achieve // ​​The reason you're lost now / is because you have a path you must take // The reason you cry again / is because you have something to bloom // When it's hard and you can't see ahead / look at your sky // You think of yourself as the sky / look at yourself as the sky // When it's too hard and tears fall / quietly reach the deepest part of your heart // look at your sky

---From "Look at Your Sky"