# Yun Dong-ju's most famous lines (with the poem)

From "Prologue" ("Until the day I die, looking up at the sky") to "Counting the Stars at Night", "A Poem Easily Written" and "Self-Portrait": lines by Yun Dong-ju, who died aged 27 in Fukuoka prison on 16 February 1945, from his posthumous collection Sky, Wind, Stars and Poems (1948).

- 11 votes · 14 items
- May 14, 2022 · 김민지
- https://even.best/en/l/5243/yun-dong-ju-s-most-famous-lines-with-the-poem

## Top 14

1. **They say life is hard to live; / that a poem should be written so easily / is a shameful thing.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Poem "A Poem Easily Written", 1942.
2. **Until the day I die, looking up at the sky, / I hope to have no speck of shame. / Even the wind stirring the leaves / has troubled me.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Poem "Prologue", 1941.
3. **The sky where the seasons pass / is filled with autumn.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Poem "Counting the Stars at Night", 1941.
4. **One star for memory, / one star for love, / one star for loneliness, / one star for longing, / one star for poetry, / one star for mother, mother,** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Poem "Counting the Stars at Night", 1941.
5. **I hold out a small hand to myself: / the first handshake, held with tears and comfort.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Poem "A Poem Easily Written", 1942.
6. **That my face remains / in a copper mirror green with rust, / the relic of what dynasty, / that it should be so shameful?** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Poem "Confession", 1942.
7. **When winter passes and spring comes to my star, / as grass greens a grave, / grass will grow thick, like pride, / on the hill where my name lies buried.** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — Poem "Counting the Stars at Night", 1941.
8. **Tonight again the stars are brushed by the wind.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Poem "Prologue", 1941.
9. **In the well the moon is bright, clouds drift, the sky spreads, a blue wind blows and there is autumn. / And there is a man.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Poem "Self-Portrait", 1939.
10. **The road I walked yesterday and will walk today: / my road, a new road.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Poem "A New Road", 1938.
11. **If I live, it is only / because I am searching for what I lost.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Poem "The Road".
12. **The night I came back home / my skeleton followed me and lay down in the same room.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Poem "Another Hometown", 1941.
13. **With a heart that sings to the stars / I must love all things that are dying, / and I must walk / the path that has been given to me.** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Poem "Prologue", 1941.
14. **Outside the window the night rain whispers; / this six-mat room is a foreign land.** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Poem "A Poem Easily Written", 1942.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.