[Kim Seung-jong's Literary Miscellany (180)] 'Rain Must Fall for Rain's Own Reasons'

Though the oppressive heat swollen like a massive balloon has eased somewhat, the black cracks in the dried and cracked reservoir bed grow ever wider. Whether engaged in farming or not, we glance at the sky more than ever, hoping for rain to come—or rather, for it to arrive. In such times, I encountered and read the following poem about rain.

Just as no fragrance would emerge no matter how much one insists that a cat's paw prints in snow are flowers, rain cannot sing

Unfortunately, it is because rain has no vocal cords; if verification is necessary, summon the sound of rain you heard just moments ago

What screams most cheerfully is a corrugated iron roof, what bounces back raindrops most swiftly is a stone

As sparring partners for rain with glass fists, young green or leaves wearing green gloves, having learned flexibility early, are just right

It is an unspoken rule not to touch flowers, which tend to cause misunderstandings due to deep bruises, yet they have no choice but to thrust their faces forward

Just as what grasps the ankle of fallen leaves is the spider web's circumstance, not the wind's, rain can only fall for rain's own reasons

There are things that must be fed with that bitter saltiness—the endured sorrow that has been borne—so with swollen sobs held tight, they fall regardless of death or life

- "An Apology for Rain"/Han Hye-young

Through six stanzas, we find charm in the speaker's personified statements defending rain's silence, and we affirm that this apology holds true not merely as rhetoric but as fact. Yes, because 'rain has no vocal cords'—rain itself produces no vocalization—the so-called 'sound of rain' is strange. Yet whenever rain falls, we have assumed the hearing of that sound, expressed what it is like, and acknowledged it. In stanzas 1, 2, and 3 of this poem, we recognize and affirm that the sound of rain is not the sound rain itself produces, but rather the sound generated in the relationship between rain and objects upon contact—a sound different from birdsong or insect sounds.

The issue is not merely such encounters that deviate from convention. After reading the final seventh stanza, we are bewildered by its shock. Rain itself is 'endured sorrow'? Or a subject that has embodied that 'sorrow' in its form? After reading stanza 6, we either did not expect or could not expect the poem to present rain's identity, and even if we had expected it, we apparently did not or could not anticipate such an identity. In other words, stanza 7 strikes us not only suddenly but also with a fresh identity. Moreover, we marvel at the added phrase 'that bitter saltiness,' continue to do so at 'there are things that must be fed with that bitterness,' and in the utterance 'with swollen sobs held tight, they fall regardless of death or life,' we find ourselves without leisure to relax our tension. This rapid and unanticipated development—yet we do savor and appreciate the message in this context quite closely.

If there is no countermeasure and life is forced to wither toward death under drought, then earthly things are inevitably 'things that must be fed with that bitterness.' Yet despite this, 'just as what grasps the ankle of fallen leaves is the spider web's circumstance, not the wind's,' these are their 'circumstances,' not rain's 'circumstances,' and yet the speaker refers to rain's 'own reasons' and says rain 'can only fall,' regardless of 'death or life.'

In this poem, we encounter the great virtue of rain's dedication, harmonizing benevolence and compassion. Simultaneously, we must reassess whether this poem was written not with the intent to praise rain as one of nature's phenomena, but as an allegory dependent upon that phenomenon. If so, we wonder what this rain is a metonym for. From this point, we cannot help but associate while remaining cautious, and we would likely first recall parents' arduous labor and their grace in nurturing life. The imagery of bearing 'swollen sobs while those things [children] must be fed, falling regardless of death or life' fits well. Yet if we develop something further beyond such representational schemes, this appreciation would surely become even richer.

In the rain falling through devoted sacrifice, we will likely not merely sense benevolence and compassion abundantly. Doesn't it seem possible that we might even dare hope to attempt such great virtue ourselves? Soaked by that rain, while being soaked.

Notably, upon savoring the aftertaste of this poem, we can recognize why stanzas 1-5 and their related elaborations, which initially seemed somewhat long, were necessary. Otherwise, stanza 7's statement would not have been so dramatically highlighted. Stanza 5 is an apology concerning the 'deep bruises' of 'flowers'—a different sound from previous ones, namely what could result from contact with rain—a passage we also found engaging to listen to. Though 'flower' avoidance is rain's 'unspoken rule,' the 'circumstance' allowing this is that 'flowers' thrust their 'faces forward unable to help it' to meet the rain. In other words, this suggests that flowers have a sincere intimacy with rain, unlike 'corrugated iron roofs' or 'stones'—an affinity whose charm is implicit in rain's image.

Additionally, the speaker's motivation regarding apology, considered throughout the full reading, deserves attention. At first glance, it does not seem an apology related to rain that does not fall amid drought despite objects' plight, but ultimately it concerns the intention to bring into relief, in relief, rain's great compassion that drenches the entire body in the calamity where life is being depleted more harshly than consumed. Anticipated rain that finally pours, and as it pours, we indirectly advocate on behalf of the revival aspects of things and their sentiments.

Readers' attitudes, in other words, will change. Not confined to mere gratitude at the sight of falling rain, but transcending that boundary distinctly into a state of deep emotion. As if bursting forth the 'sobs' that rain finally cannot release.