Yellow Stars
by D.J. Yoon
When I was a boy,
I kept bees at the foot of Mt. Bohyeon
In Hyeonseo, Cheongsong.
Inside a hot, narrow military tent
Painted black with coal tar,
Yellow stars came to visit me every night.
Lost in the joy of their company,
I lived there,
Knowing little of what went on in the world.
To prepare breakfast for the stars
Who had kept me company all night,
I would peel potatoes gathered
From the fields at the foot of the mountain,
Wash them in water
I had carried on my A-frame carrier,
And hurry to serve barley rice
With soybean paste, a few anchovies
And roughly chopped green peppers.
The stars would lightly dip
Their little fingers into the soybean paste and taste it.
It’s summer ...
It spoiled as soon as you boiled it!
Still, Mt. Bohyeon’s soybean paste is the best.
They would tease me and quickly empty their bowls.
The stars told me stories of the sky night after night.
So much time has passed that
I can no longer clearly remember their faces,
Yet their voices remain clear and distinct.
When the bush clover bloomed
And the bees flew busily from flower to flower,
The stars would linger beside the beehives,
Breathing in the fragrance of honey.
This one is bush clover honey,
And that one is wildflower honey ...
I would explain proudly,
Then shyly offer them a spoonful of honey
I had gathered only days before.
But one year,
After the National Astronomical Observatory
Was built on the summit of Mt. Bohyeon,
All the stars went away.
They complained that they could no longer
Live comfortably in their underwear
With those enormous telescopes peering so closely
At everything they did.
Not knowing this,
I waited anxiously for them
The following year, and the year after that.
I waited until at last
I handed my beehives over to others
And came down from Mt. Bohyeon.
Everything here feels unfamiliar.
The city night sky
Grows hazier day by day.
Still, every night,
I lift my eyes to the sky.
Where are my friends?
Then, from somewhere far away,
I seem to hear the footsteps of yellow stars
Walking through the darkness
To find me ...
crunch crunch
crunch crunch
노란 별
-윤동재
내가 소년이었을 때
청송 현서 보현산 기슭에서 벌을 쳤지요
검은 콜타르 칠한 군용 천막
그 후끈하고 좁은 안으로
밤마다 노란 별들이 찾아왔지요
그 기쁨에 빠져
세상 돌아가는 줄도 모르고 지냈지요
밤새 곁을 지켜준 별들에게
아침이라도 지어 먹여 보내려고
새벽 일찍 산자락 밭에서 주워 온 감자 껍질 벗기고
지게에 지고 온 물로 씻어
멸치 몇 마리, 풋고추 숭숭 썰어 넣은 된장에
보리밥을 서둘러 차려내면
별들은 새끼손가락으로 된장부터 살짝 찍어 맛보고는
“여름날이라 끓이자마자, 바로 상했구먼!
그래도 보현산 표 된장이 최고지” 하며
나를 놀리면서도 한 그릇 후딱 비웠지요
별들이 밤마다 들려주던 하늘 이야기
세월이 너무 많이 흘러
목소리는 또렷또렷한데
별들의 표정은 잘 떠오르지 않지요
싸리꽃이 피어 벌들이 부지런히 꿀을 따오면
별들은 벌통 곁을 떠나지 않고 꿀 냄새를 맡곤 했지요
“이건 싸리꿀, 저건 잡꿀……”
그러면 나는 얼마 전 딴 꿀 한 숟가락
맛보라고 수줍게 내밀었지요
그런데 어느 해 보현산 꼭대기에
국립 천문대가 생기고부터는
커다란 망원경이 샅샅이 들여다보는 통에
속옷 차림으로는 지낼 수 없다며
별들은 모두 다른 곳으로 떠나갔지요
나는 그것도 모르고
다음 해도, 그다음 해도
찾아주기를 애타게 기다리다
벌통을 모두 남에게 넘기고
보현산을 내려왔지요
이곳은 모든 것이 낯설지요
나날이 뿌연 도시의 밤하늘
그래도 여전히 밤마다 하늘을 올려다보지요
내 친구들은 어디에 있나
노란 별들이 나를 찾아 걸어오는 발소리
자박자박
자박자박
Appreciation Review 感想
D.J. Yoon’s ’Yellow Stars’ is a beautiful and touching poem about childhood memories.
The boy’s life is poor and simple, but he lives close to nature and has many dreams.
The warm and magical image of the ‘yellow stars’ brings these memories back to life.
The black tent at the foot of Mt. Bohyeon, potatoes and barley rice, soybean paste with anchovies and green peppers, honey, and beehives all show us what his life was like.
At the same time, these real details mix beautifully with the dreamlike story of the yellow stars that visit him every night, eat with him, and tell him stories.
The scenes where the stars taste the soybean paste with their little fingers and tease the boy are especially warm and funny.
Another humorous scene comes when the stars leave because the large telescope at the observatory means they can no longer ‘go around in their underwear.’
Behind this gentle humor, however, there is also sadness.
As science and technology develop, people seem to become less close to nature.
In the poem, the stars are not simply stars in the night sky.
They are the boy’s friends, his dreams, and his happy childhood that can never return.
This makes the final scene very moving.
After leaving Mt. Bohyeon, the poet looks up at the hazy city sky and asks, “Where are my friends?”
His question reminds us of the beautiful and innocent things we often lose as we grow older.
The final ‘jabak-jabak / jabak-jabak’ sounds like the quiet footsteps of the stars coming back to him from his memories.
It leaves the reader with a warm but sad feeling that lasts long after the poem ends.
With its simple country life, magical imagination, gentle humor, and deep sense of longing, ‘Yellow Stars’ turns one boy’s childhood memories into a beautiful story about the ‘lost stars’ that live in all our hearts.
#자박자박 #crunch #jabak-jabak
