Beneath the Water

It is the dawn tide
Today I am not going down for abalone

I take the float in my arms and walk into the water
Down to a floor that turned over after ten years
A morning when the waves open a road
Even the sea is quiet today
I take one deep breath in
Because with this one breath I must go down and come back
I left the iron pick behind
Because today I am not going to take
I am going to receive

The water takes me in
The light moves away behind my back
The sounds go out one by one
And then I see that ship

Beneath the water, beneath the water
Where ten years lie sleeping
Beneath the water, beneath the water
A room no one has entered
I am not a thief
I am a guest
Please open the door

I go in through the split hull
Seaweed hangs down like a door curtain
Beside the chest, they are there
People the waves could not move
Somebody's elder son is here
A son who waited ten years is here
I knock on the wood with my fingertips
I've come. I've come at last.

Half a breath left
The chest is not heavy
What is heavy is not the chest
It is everything that comes after this

Beneath the water, beneath the water
Where ten years lie sleeping
Beneath the water, beneath the water
A room no one has entered
I am not a thief
I am a guest
Please open the door

(holding my breath)
Ieodo sana, ieodo sana
You who came all this way
You who lie here with your names forgotten
The scholar told me this —
What you are waiting for
Is not quiet. It is a name.
I will take this. I am not stealing.
I have come to fetch your names.
The breath runs out
Toward the light — I rise

Beneath the water, beneath the water
Ten years are rising
Beneath the water, beneath the water
The names are rising
I was not a thief
I am the one who delivers
Though the brush breaks, the ink does not dry

Hwiii —
Alive again today
And today
It is not only I who came up