Jajangmyeon Love
After so long I have found
Myself at the campus where
She would walk alongside that
Simple good-for-nothing boy
With a smile on her face
I had set my sights on her
She, who would always be next
To that beastly boy.
Anyhow I was attracted to her
And even if it was only once
I wanted to eat jajangmyeon* with her
I found out her mother
Suffered from polio
I found out her father
Had remarried.
Would she want to hide
Her limping mother?
As I thought these limping thoughts
I wanted to eat jajangmyeon with her.
I was a young single man
You were like a bird
Fluttering here and there
I gazed up to the sky
That you flew away to.
After so long I am sitting
On the bench I sat on
When I was in love with you.
Looking upwards and backwards
Into the sky from the past.
In that car park there are
More cars than I remember,
As I watch the students walking by
I think to myself
Are they junior colleagues of mine?
Unable to find part-time jobs
They walk hurriedly,
Only their footsteps quick.
Could there be among these boys
One who holds someone
Close to his heart,
Without a word,
Someone he would like
To eat jajangmyeon with?
Your steps they come and go
Have after all this time
Reached a crossroads.
The traffic lights from the past flicker.
Were you the only thing
I have ever lost?
The cars they keep coming
The traffic lights are red.
*Black bean sauce noodles.
Traffic Lights -- Sean Flood
Korea opened its port at Jemulpo (Incheon) to foreign trade in 1883, and a Chinese settlement was established there in 1885. By 1900 the population had risen to about 1,000. In 1905 one of the Chinese immigrants, from Shandong province, introduced jajangmyeon, a noodle dish topped with a thick sauce made of chunjang (a black gravy), diced pork and vegetables. Its name was derived from the Chinese “zhájiàng” and “mian” (fried sauce and noodles).
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind explanation about jajangmyeon, which is one of the popular and favorite food most Koreans enjoy throughout Korea.
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