Hold fast to dreams 
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Across the fields, the happy fields that lay
      Unfaded yet, one visionary day
  We walked together, and the world was sweet.
   Each heard the whisper neither might repeat,
Love's whisper underneath our light word-play.

When fields were brown, when skies hung close and gray,
Alone I walked the dear familiar way,
   With eager heart, with hurrying love-led feet,
                   Across the fields.

O life that hath so bitter words to say!
O heart so sore impatient of delay!
   O wistful hands that reach and may not meet!
   O eyes that yearn for answering eyes to greet!
The summer comes. It wins me not to stray
                  Across the fields.

Well, son, I’ll tell you: 
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare;
But all the time
I’se been a’climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners, 
And sometimes goin’ in the dark, 
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back;
Don’t you sit down on the steps, 
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard;
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

^{translated from the Korean by Younghill Kang}

When you go walking through the clear dawn in the shade of trees,
  my dream will become the few little stars
     that are staying on over your head.

When during summer days you are sleeping a daytime sleep
  unable to conquer the heat, my dream will become the clear winds
     that are floating about your vicinage.

When in the still Autumn nights, you sit alone reading books,
  my dream will become the voice of the cricket, crying
     under your table, “chirrup, chirrup.”

나의 꿈

당신이 맑은 새벽에 나무그늘 사이에서 산보할 때에 
나의 꿈은 작은 별이 되어서 
당신의 머리 위를 지키고 있겠습니다.

당신이 여름날에 더위를 못 이기어 낮잠을 자거든 
나의 꿈은 맑은 바람이 되어서 
당신의 주위에 떠돌겠습니다.

당신이 고요한 가을밤에 그윽히 앉아서 글을 볼 때에 
나의 꿈은 귀뚜라미가 되어서 
당신의 책상 밑에서 “귀똘귀똘” 울겠습니다.