LIVE, LEARN, & LOVE SERIES #19. The Sea (poem by Baek Seok)

 

The Sea

by 白石 (Baek Seok, 1912-1996)

(from Poems of the North)

 

Despite escaping to the sea’s side

The sea it seems comes only with thoughts of you

It seems the sea and I want only for love of you

 

Ascending the curved body of the sandy plain

You seem to walk before me

And emerge again behind

 

And letting lapping thoughts wear my walk of water’s edge

As if only in your words impression

As if only in your words halt

 

This side of the sea,

A Morning Glory devoid of morning

With white sunshine on shiny scales glaring cold,

Somehow seeming lonesome, somehow seeming sorrowful

 

 

ð  This is a sad, romantic piece of poem about unavoidable longing, in which the poet could hardly ever find comfort in nature because memories of a loved one continually intrude. The poet imagines the loved one walking both ahead of and behind them, creating the sense of a ghostly or haunting presence that fills the surrounding landscape. The lines “white sunshine on shiny scales glaring cold,” and the “Morning Glory devoid of morning,” contain the overall lonely or sorrowful tone. These lines imply that nature’s beauty is either overshadowed by the poet’s emotional suffering after he lost his loved one. The line “lapping thoughts wear my walk of water's edge” suggests that memories are gradually wearing away the speaker’s present experience, just as the sea slowly erodes the coast.

 

**Jean’s Small Thoughts:

As long as you remain emotionally connected to your loved ones—whether they are living or gone—the space they left in your heart will always hold a special place for them. Keep that place calm, peaceful, and open, allowing their memory and presence to return to you at any time throughout your life. The ones you loved are not gone for good, but only have temporarily moved to some other place out of your sight.