Silver Knife Pendant
Grandmother left us her small wooden chest
containing rice paper, ink stone, and writing brush,
and a small silver knife trinket.
A woman of the last Chosun Kingdom,
She maintained her duty as the only daughter-in-law
of a landed gentry household that she managed with class and dignity
after her husband took a modern educated woman
as a concubine in the city.
She happened to have only one daughter
and a kind of a son.
She raised one nephew who lost his parents at a young age
and he became the first first-class licensed pilot
in Korean history,
the first Korean pilot
who flew through the sky from Japan to Korea
with his own airplane.
So she taught all of her family members
not to kill any flying insects,
and she prayed for her nephew's safety
at the Sunwoonsa Temple nearby.
The silver knife trinket
and the ladies’ treasure chest
reflecting the spirit of the women of the Chosun era
is now worth more than any million dollar antique treasure.
The knife is supposed to be
the knife with which she would kill herself
under disgraceful circumstances.