I find that recently, I’m at the stage where the most difficult part of language learning for me is just vocabulary acquisition. I’ve been trying a lot of different things to improve this, and TBH, writing poems in Korean has been the best way for new words to stick in my mind.
When I do this, I’m forced to use grammar and vocabulary to be create and write things beautifully, which stretches my brain and helps me to avoid directly translating in English.
Anyway, I think that I’m going to start posting some of the poems I write on this blog, just as a personal log. I’ll also leave the English translation of the poems (or my best attempt at a translation).
I’m sure these will have lots of mistakes, but hey, learning is a journey, right?
#1 Unnamed (Korean Version)
한국에 살다 보니 엄마의 얼굴이 점점 흐려져
낯선 사람처럼 느껴졌다.
가끔 엄마를 다시 만나면
알아볼 수 있을지 궁금하다.
어제를 떠올리면 엄마는 나를 위해
자장가를 불러 주셨지만,
시간은 누구도 멈출 수 없기에
이제는 엄마의 목소리를 들을 수도 없고
어른이 될 수밖에 없었다.
아마도 엄마를 알아볼 수 없을 거라고 생각한다.
그것이 어른이 된다는 것인지 모르겠다.
#1 Unnamed (English Version)
As I live in Korea, my mother’s face grows blurrier
and she feels like a stranger.
Sometimes I wonder if I would recognize her
if we met again.
When I recall yesterday
my mom sang me a lullaby,
but because no one can stop time
now I can no longer hear her voice
and I had no choice but to become an adult.
I think maybe I wouldn’t recognize her.
I don’t know if that’s what it means to be an adult.
Thanks for checking it out! It’s not my best work, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
– Jena
Jena in Korea 