Lee Sang-hwa
TO MY BEDCHAMBER
Madonna! how the night, weary of all the feasts, will soon retire.
Ah, you must rush to me before the dawn breaks,
With dewdrops on your peach breasts.
Madonna! leave behind all the pearls of your family
That have been inherited eye to eye.
Come with your body alone, let's make haste.
We are two stars that must hide somewhere when the day breaks.
Madonna! in the soul's dark, deserted streets,
I'm waiting trembing with fear.
Ah, the first cock crows and the dogs bark!
My maiden, do you too hear?
Madonna! let's go to the bedchamber
That I polished all through the night-tide.
The old moon is about to sink and my ears hear footfalls.
O are you coming, my maiden?
Madonna! look at my soul's candle flicker and pine;
It will suffocate even in a downy breeze
And disperse like thin smoke.
Madonna! come, let us depart.
The mountain shadow is approaching stealthily.
Ah, someone will see us, my heart leaps.
I'm calling you, my maiden.
Madonna! the day is about to break. Come quickly.
Let your hands clasp my neck
Before the temple bells deride us.
Let us go to that eternal country with this night.
Madonna! there is none will open my bedchamber
Beyond the lone bridge of remorse and fear.
Ah, the winds arise. Come lightly like the wind.
Are you coming, my maiden?
Madonna! it's a pity, I must have gone mad.
For I hear unreal sounds. My soul and body are
Burning as if all my blood, all my soul's fount have gone dry.
Madonna! we could go there anytime. If we must,
Let us go willingly, not forced.
My Mary, you believe in my words.
You must know that my bedchamber is a sepulchre of resurrection.
Madonna! the dreams that Night offers,
The dreams we weave and the dreams of life that men dream;
They are not different but all alike.
Ah, let us go to my bedchamber, to that beautiful and eternal land
Innocent and free as children.
Madonna, the laughters of the stars are fading
And the dark night's waves are subsiding.
Ah, you must come before the fog disperses.
I'm calling you, my maiden.
Translated by Chang-soo Ko
