ENG Translation
A Life of Tears
When I cried, my grandmother would say,
“You’re shedding tears like chicken droppings.”
So whenever I saw drops fall heavy and sudden from my face,
I would think of her.
They fall like scabs peeling off,
scatter like cherry blossoms,
shatter like grains of sand.
What do tears become as they fall?
Where do they go?
But where do tears come from?
They grow in the eyes,
yet they are born in the heart.
All things are curled when they come into being.
It has sound, and it has temperature —
hot or cold, loud or silent,
but never lukewarm.
Grow, grow —sometimes like moss, sometimes like a willow branch,
and so the tears flow —but where do they go?
They gather on my lashes,
slide down the hills of my cheeks,
drop from the edge of my chin — Plop!
and fall upon my chest,
soaking in, leaving a shadow.
Do tears, once fallen, become tears again?
Their life turns round and round,
returning always to the heart.
And I — I wish to remain
the earth where tears continue to live.
2026.02.14