If It Be Dream
translated from the Korean by Younghill Kang
If the bondage of love be a dream,
Coming out to the world, freed, is also a dream.
If laughter and weeping be dream,
The bright light of the reason is also a dream.
If the ten thousand laws, one and all, be dream,
Let me have the dream of eternal love.
꿈이라면
사랑의 束縛이 꿈이라면
出世의 解脫도 꿈입니다
웃음과 눈물이 꿈이라면
無心의 光明도 꿈입니다
一切萬法이 꿈이라면
사랑의 꿈에서 不滅을 얻겠습니다
From The Silence of the Beloved (Hoedong Seogwan Publishers, 1926) by Han Yong-un. Translated from the Korean by Younghill Kang. This poem is in the public domain.
Han Yong-un
Han Yong-un (한용운, 韓龍雲), also known by his pen name “Manhae,” meaning “ten thousand seas,” was born Han Yu-cheon on August 29, 1879, to a farming family in Hongseong, South Chungcheong Province, Korea. A Buddhist monk, poet, and critic of the Japanese colonial rule of Korea, which lasted from 1910 to 1945, he began his education studying Chinese classics at a seodang, that is, private village schools that acted as elementary schools for boys during the Joseon Dynasty.