Shadow

Shadow does not stand out. Being colorless, they always hang heavy. Shadow cannot even moan in pain even when people nonchalantly step on it. This is its fate to be dragged along and disappear when a person dies.

Even though shadow appears useless, poets loved and appreciated it. Poet Kim So-wol once said soul is like shadow. Chinese poet Li Bai said in “Drinking Alone by Moonlight” that he is having a drink with the moon and shadow. From ancient times, people seem to have thought that shadow is their another self or soul. It does not make sense scientifically, but there are a lot of stories about shadow.

Shadow is part of us that we overlook as it does not stand out. Shadow exists within us, at our feet and outside of us. Poet Ham Min-bok put some of the pieces together and made a poem out if it. In the poem, he wished that the shadow of falling flowers had colors as he pitied that flowers fall so easily. He wished that at least the shadow of her mother would be straight as he pitied that his mother was bent with age. He wished that a beggar’s shadow was warm as the beggar was exhausted and cold.

Falling flowers, bent mother and exhausted beggar are all pitiful, but shadows are the most neglected being of all. The eyes of the poet are precious for discovering it, and his warm gaze are also invaluable. It is because the place, where shadow casts, is colder in winter.