Poem - A River, It Is by Geum-Hee Yang (South Korea)

A River, It Is

Geum-Hee Yang

Our memories

Were a river

Sadness passing by

Pain flowing away

Joy streaming along

A river, it is

If our sadness

Our pain

And even our joy

Piled up like fallen leaves in a lake,

The clear water would decay

Water flows

Purifying old emotions

Brushing past fallen leaves and branches

A clear heart following the water’s path

Somewhere, my river

That has flowed like this

And your river will someday

form a great river

To let the upright belief flow clear,

We must open the waterway

So that a pure river can flow

Biography:

Poetess Ms. Yang Geum-Hee was born in 1967 in Jeju, Korea. She has published two poetry collections, "Happiness Account" and "Ieodo, Island of Legend and Existence," as well as one collection of essays titled "Happy Companion." She was the first president of the Ieodo Literature Association, the editor-in-chief of Jejuin News, and worked as a research fellow at the Society of Ieodo Research. She served as a researcher at the Jeju Sea Grant Center at Jeju National University and as a specially appointed professor at Jeju International University.

Currently, she is an editorial writer for the New Jeju Ilbo, a special researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of Jeju National University, vice-president of the Jeju Regional Committee of the Korean PEN Center, an executive of the Jeju Institute for Korean Unification, and an executive of the Korean Association of Ethics. She is also the president of the Korean Associations of World Literature. She has won eight literary awards.

Her poetry has been translated into various languages and introduced in the United States, China, Japan, Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, England, Taiwan, Nepal, Egypt, Greece, Pakistan, Vietnam, Albania, Bangladesh,

 Kosovo, Tajikistan, and more.