Magnificat   1
 
I am bidden to accept
bidden to accept
this despair, this dark compulsion.
Is this what a cancer patient’s fear is like?
Bidden to accept a death sentence?
 
How frightened she must have been,
how frightened
as she, a virgin, was bidden to bear a bastard.
 
She said, ‘Fiat’
with resignation, with dignity,
with uneasy expectancy,
and those who have never known despair
call it devout obedience.
 
Magnificat -- the song sung
as a dream of new heavens, new earth,
born of the despair of a terminal cancer patient,
my soul, my soul
praises you in joy.
 
 
 * Magnificat is the first word of the Song of Mary in Latin (Luke 1:46-55).
 
Translation in collaboration with Jongsook Lee