The Time for the Janitor to Pass By

Poetry and translation from Korean by Ihlwha Choi

THE TIME FOR THE JANITOR TO PASS BY 

Birds colliding with the glass window and falling,
The janitor sweeps them away with familiarity.
Birds that once lived in the square of the sky,
On Ukraine's transparent glass window,
On Myanmar's ruthless glass window, they plummet.

The time for the janitor to pass by again.

Flowers we see are like a fleeting paradise,
The way we viewed America once.
Glass windows erected over America, horrible barriers.
The time for the janitor to pass by again.
The mother bird becomes a glass wall of death,
Time and time again, a baby bird falls beneath the glass wall.
From the glass window of the sea,
To the soundproof walls of the land, colliding silver wings,
Many things plummet daily onto the blue star.

Ihlwha Choi is a South Korean poet. He has published multiple poetry collections, such as Until the Time When Our Love will Flourish, The Color of Time, His Song and The Last Rehearsal.

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