This 500-Year-Old Love Letter Found in Mummy Tells The Deep Love and Sorrow of a Mourning Wife

By | February 13, 2016

A poetic and heartbreaking love letter was found buried beside a mummy of a 16th century male. The love letter was penned by the mummy's pregnant widow.

The male mummy, believed to be that of Eung Tae Lee, was discovered in April 1998, in an ancient tomb in Andong City, South Korea with the love letter and a pair of hand-woven sandals beside him. The sandals were woven with hemp bark and the widow's own hair.

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“To Won’s Father

June 1, 1586

You always said, ‘Dear, let’s live together until our hair turns gray and die on the same day.’ How could you pass away without me? Who should I and our little boy listen to and how should we live? How could you go ahead of me?

How did you bring your heart to me and how did I bring my heart to you? Whenever we lay down together you always told me, ‘Dear, do other people cherish and love each other like we do? Are they really like us?’ How could you leave all that behind and go ahead of me?

I just cannot live without you. I just want to go to you. Please take me to where you are. My feelings toward you I cannot forget in this world and my sorrow knows no limit. Where would I put my heart in now and how can I live with the child missing you?

Please look at this letter and tell me in detail in my dreams. Because I want to listen to your words in detail in my dreams, I write this letter and put it in. Look closely and talk to me.

When I give birth to the child in me, who should it call father? Can anyone fathom how I feel? There is no tragedy like this under the sky.

You are just in another place, and not in such a deep grief as I am. There is no limit and end that I write roughly. Please look closely at this letter and come to me in my dreams and show yourself in detail and tell me. I believe I can see you in my dreams. Come to me secretly and show yourself. There is no limit to what I want to say and I stop here.”

The love eulogy of the distraught wife did not end with her love letter, as next to Eung-tae's head was a paper parcel that contained slippers made from her own hair. Writings on the parcel read: "with my hair I weave this" and "before you were even able to wear it."

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H/T DailyMail