I don't want to know

Is that Orion?
Smiling down at me

As I sit sighing

Into the dark night?

Or is it just me reading signs

Where none exist?
I don't want to know.

And the other day,

Did the sun really wink at me,

Peeping out of cottony clouds

As I smiled up at the sky?

Or was it just my impish mind

Pulling a prank on me?
I really don't want to know.

Just for once,

Leave me alone

With tales I have woven

Out of nothingness.

Just once, this once,

I don’t want to know.

Waiting.

Waiting.
I am waiting
For the sun to rise.

The world is asleep.
And here I am
Walking.
To and fro.
To and fro.

Waiting.
For the sun to rise.
For life to take over
And set me free.

Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen

The song I want to hear on my deathbed. Sums up life most beautifully.
"Listen love, love is not some kind of victory march,
No it's cold, and it's a very broken Hallelujah!"

Oasis

There is sunshine in my eyes,

There is music in my soul,

And I have nothing more to ask for.

Today, I have found an oasis

In the heart of a burning desert.


I close my eyes and wonder,
Will the music fade away?
But does that really matter so much?
'cause today, I have found an oasis
In the heart of a burning desert.


I will not think
Of yesterday or tomorrow.
Does it really matter at all?
Today, I will soak it all in,
With every pore of my being.
Here, in the oasis that lies
In the heart of a burning desert.

Untitled

The long lost music

Danced back into my life

Softly, but surely.

My cocoon of silence peeled open

In a single moment of beauty.

A bad, bad haiku written with a smile!

Strumming a guitar

Is quite like painting a wall!

Swish swish, I strum away!

Arirang by Jang Sa Ik:

The most beautiful folk song I've ever heard.



I first heard this song as a kid, in the voice of one of my father's Korean students in a Postal Training Institute in Bangkok. It has stayed in my memory ever since. It is a song that can move you even when the most ordinary singer sings it. And in the voice of Jang Sa Ik, it's heavenly. I love the expressions on his face when he sings. This man is so shy when he is even a few feet away from the mike, but when he starts singing, he just transforms into this inspired being with music flowing through every vein. The song goes something like this (not my translation):

Arirang, Arirang, Arariyo... 

I am crossing over Arirang Pass. 

The one who abandoned me  

Will not walk even ten li before their feet hurt.  

Just as there are many stars in the clear sky,  

There are also many dreams in our heart.  

There, over there that mountain is Baekdu Mountain,   

Where, even in the middle of winter days, flowers bloom.

I think Jang Sa Ik does not sing these exact lyrics, he improvises a lot, but this is a translation of the lyrics which usually go with the melody.