World Poetry Proudly Presents Bong Ja Ahn from South Korea and Canada!

Award Winning Poet!

World Poetry is very proud to congratulate  Bong Ja Ahn for recently winning the  Korean Writers Association  21^st Annual Distinguished Overseas Member Award.
 (A Crystal Medallion Plaque and $1000)
She is  a World Poetry Lifetime Achievment Award Winner and World Poetry Ambassador to Korea as well as a World Poetry Director and host.

 A Brief biography:  Bilingual poet and essayist born in Korea.
 Writes about her love for nature and varied human sentiments and yearnings.

Member of:  Korean-Canadian Writer’s Association, The World Poetry Reading Series Society and the Korean Writer’s Association,  Writes literary columns for the local Korean newspapers, The Korea Daily and The Korea Times.
Her works have been published in several literary magazines on two continents.  

World Poetry Ambassador to Korea (2008)

Literary  Awards:
World Poetry Lifetime Achievement Award (2009).
W.I.N. Distinguished Poet and Essayist Award.
Korean Writers Association 21^st Distinguished Oversea Member Award.

 Author of Six Books:
 The Blue Winged Fish (Poetry in English & Korean, 2004)
 Because I heard you’re coming (Poetry in English & Korean, 2006)
 Like a Camel, I carry yearnings on my back. (Essay in Korean, 2007)
Letter from the Sea (Poetry in English, 2009)
Living, Dreaming & In Between (Prose in English, 2010)
 삷과 꿈, 그리고 그 사이 (Korean Version of ‘Living, Dreaming & In Between’ 2010)

Tears

To welcome the brighter rainbow,
I got up before the dawn and washed my window.

To see many more stars,
I stayed up late hours and washed my window;
washed very hard like no tomorrow.

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter,
then again Spring, Summer……
hopes of mornings and dismays of evenings
opened and closed, and each day repeated,
yet neither brighter rainbow nor more stars I’ve greeted.

Like a half-mute, like a one-legged cripple,
a settler’s ongoing struggle
and time passed by fast nevertheless
until one day finally I knelt down and cried
like a leper in helplessness.

It was then I saw there in the pool of my tears
patches of gray beside my ears.    

눈물

보다  선명한 무지개를 맞이할 욕망에

새벽보다 먼저 일어나  유리창을 닦았습니다

더 많은 별을 보곺은 욕심에

남 다 자는 늦은 밤에도 유리창을 닦았습니다

혼신을 다해 닦았습니다

봄, 여름, 가을, 겨울

그리고 다시 봄, 여름……

희망의 새벽과 절망의 저녁들은

수없이 열리고 닫혔어도 

더 선명한 무지개, 더 많은 별은 들이지 못한 채

반벙어리, 외발 절름발이

이민의 땅 홀로 서기 숨찬 몸부림에

속절없는 세월만 쉼 없이 흘러가고

이윽고 무릎 꿇는 짐승 되어 문둥이처럼 꺽꺽 울던 날

그때 나의 눈물 웅덩이 속 그림자에서 보았습니다.

귀밑머리 하얀 서리 내린 것을

Ahn Bong Ja ©