Pink River

The river is different from the sea, as the sea is more basic as nature. In contrast, the river that is closer to the place where people reside more closely resembles people. Rivers are twisted like people’s lives. Sometimes it dries up and other times it floods. It is like a giant man or aged man. Perhaps for this reason, Korean poems frequently mention rivers. We can recall countless poems that mention rivers including the Geum River, the Han River, the Nakdong River, the Seomjin River, the Dawn River, and the Sunset River.

Poems like the river because we can wash there. What do we wash? We wash shovels, anger and furor. Most importantly, we wash tears. The river we go to wash our tears. The river that awaits such a person. There is such ‘Pink River’ right here.

A day in April was a sad day when people lost loved ones. The poet went to the Pink River to wash eyes. It is uncertain whether the Pink River is pink because people shed tears of blood there, or it had rain of (pink) flowers, but the river is a river where a mixture of love and sadness steams. The poet cries and laughs here. Come to think of it, April is an especially beautiful month and a month when we had lots of sadness. The Pink River streams not just in the poem.