Before I knew the Japanese
And they would come down on horses
To chop off fingers for practice with their swords,
My husband courted me in the traditional manner
And while bashful sixteen, we were married.
I was loud of voice and sang to him far across the field
Where many apples grew and he went to smoke with the men.
He taught me first to smoke the long brown and gold pipe
While reached almost to the knee,
And once that was done he left me to wonder
Where he had gone.
                                          The Japanese were upon the land
And for years, while first suckling my boy Pyung Hoon
Later weaning him from my nipple,
                                                                          I thought the Japanese
Had taken husband for torture.
Fortune teller said I must not abandon hope
But soon I found that husband ran off
With new woman, shin-ya-sung so called
Because she did not wear traditional hairdo
But had golden high heels.
                                                     My son became doctor
Married tall and beautiful woman