There has been a book of my husband's languishing on a shelf beside my broken laptop computer, a box of unused office supplies and other odds and ends. It's a beat-up looking small paperback with the spine written entirely in Chinese characters, except for the number 17.
(For those of you who may not know, Korean used to be written exclusively in Chinese letters even until the turn of the 20th century. Until the 1980's or so, Korean was commonly written with the native Korean script hangul mixed with Chinese letters, especially in literary books. Now Chinese Characters are not commonly used, except in newpapers and scholarly writing).
So, although I'm a bibliophile of the first-degree, I ignored that book until a few days ago when I asked my husband what it was. He casually replied, "Oh, it's a book of 17th century British poetry." What!!?? Of course, I grapped it and started reading it immediately. It's a beautiful selection of the poems of John Donne, Ben Johnson, John Milton, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan and more. If you're not familiar with them, well, you should be. And this book also has the Korean translation printed on the left hand side, written in mixed script (Korean/Chinese) so I can practice all my languages at once. What a deal!
Here's one of my favorite poems by John Donne:
Batter my heart, three-personed God; for You
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an ursurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit You, but O, to no end;
Reason, Your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captivated, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be love fain,
But I am bethrothed unto Your enemy.
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again;
Take me to You, imprison me, for I,
Except You enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except You ravish me.
