Poet Ms. Im Sol Nae received the Newcomer Award from the monthly literary magazine Jayu Munhak in 1999. Her poetry collections include The QR Code of a Leaf, Amazon, That Transit Station, The Cry of an Awakened Amazon, Hong Nyeo, and many others. She has also received numerous literary honors, including the Yeongnang Poetry Award, the Korean Literary Critics Association Award, the Korean Lyric Poetry Award, selection as a Sejong Excellent Book, the Poet’s Poet Award, and the Buddhist Literary Writers’ Award.
Blue Butterfly
“The sky and the earth are my coffin, and the sun, moon, and stars are my burial gifts”
Zhuangzi once said.
I envied him.
I envied the silkworm
that sheds its stiff cocoon of flesh
to become a butterfly of the soul.
I envied Kübler-Ross,★
who cared for dying children,
carrying a plush caterpillar that, when flipped,
transformed into a butterfly,
a small miracle for her young patients.
But what moved me even more
was the final moment of her own funeral—
her children opening a small box before the coffin,
releasing butterflies into the air.
And when the mourners opened their envelopes,
blue butterflies fluttered out,
rising toward the sky.
What are we to do with such beauty?
★ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: Swiss-born psychiatrist and world-renowned authority on thanatology (the study of death and dying).
파란나비
“하늘과 땅이 관이고 해, 달, 별이
나의 순장품이다” 라던 장자가
나는 부러웠습니다
그 딱딱한 육신의 고치를 벗고
영혼의 나비가 되는 누에가
나는 참 부러웠습니다.
임종을 앞 둔 어린이들을 돌 본
퀴블러 로스★
뒤집으면 나비로 변하는 애벌레 인형을
가지고 다니며 어린 환자들에게 보여 주던
그가
나는 참말 부러웠습니다.
더 기막힌 것은,
자신의 장례식의 절정을
그의 자녀가 관 앞에서 작은 상자를 열어
나비가 날아가게 한 것
조문객들이 미리 받은 봉투를 열자
봉투에서 파란나비가 나와
공중으로 날아 갔대잖아요
이 일을 어쩌면 좋아요
★「퀴블러 로스」 스위스 태생의 정신과 의사, 생사학의 세계적인 권위자
