I’ve been watching the Korean drama 기상청 사람들: 사내연애 잔혹사 편, known in English as Forecasting Love and Weather. In episode six, there’s a lovely scene in which the two leads (who work for the Korea Meteorological Administration and therefore know a lot about the weather) are reading a lovely poem about clouds colliding as a metaphor for love. I immediately looked up the poem (titled “비오는 날” or “Rainy Day”) and found that it was written by a famous South Korean poet, 마종기 (Ma Jonggi, usually transliterated “Mah Chonggi”).
Rainy Day
As when cloud meets cloud
with a thunderous crash,
so too would I meet you
and cry out, unthinking.
As when cloud collides with cloud
and all the sky lights up at once,
I hope that when I collide with you,
I will see again the path I lost.
The rain’s song sweeps high, then low—
I cannot hope to sing along.
But you are dazzling bright
as you tell me what it means:
“The rain must meet the rain
for either to get wet.”
—translated by David Bowles
August 2, 2022
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Original Korean
비오는 날
구름이 구름을 만나면
큰 소리를 내듯이
아, 하고 나도 모르게 소리치면서
그렇게 만나고 싶다, 당신을
구름이 구름을 갑자기 만날 때
환한 불을 일시에 켜듯이
나도 당신을 만나서
잃어버린 내 길을 찾고 싶다
비가 부르는 노래의 높고 낮음을
나는 같이 따라 부를 수가 없지만
비는 비끼리 만나야 서로 젖는다고
당신은 눈부시게 내게 알려준다.
—마종기
I was looking for this poem so long and your page helped me to find it. These words means a lot to me.
Thank you very much for sharing.
Thank you for this. I came to it the exact same way.
I was also looking for this. with many thanks! 🙂
A wonderful moment in that show, and I too have been looking for the original. Thank you for sharing your research!
Hello, do you know in which of his books we can find this poem?
I also came to the website in the same manner as you all did looking at this poem, beautiful from the Korean drama, “ Forecasting, Love, and Weather.” I love Korean dramas! They are all so beautiful! Much more beautiful than regular English versions. I don’t know why but they intrigue me. I’m thinking that I want to move to Korea… maybe I was Korean in another life… probability is high 🙂
¡Increíble! gracias por este regalo!. Sabía que en algún lugar podía conseguir quien lograse investigar un poco más y descubrir esta joya. Gracias
Hi, thanks for the wonderful translation of the poem. As so many here I came across this poem in the K Drama “Forecasting Love and Weather”. The deep and somehow raw beauty really moved me. And I found the author and a German edition of selected poems by Mah Chonggi. But reading the German translation it could not transport the intense emotions that spoke to me when I heard it first. Looking for an English translation I found yours. I like it a lot. Thank you.