-
·
“Cormorant” by Ahn Do-Hyeon
The shorelines are tightly woven together, so let’s show them to mom. Let’s roast a string of sand drenched overnight.The sound of crashing waves as we lightly fry, then lay it on a tray.Let’s place it at her somber breakfast table. Let’s raise the shoreline for her.She can’t go to the house carved out of…
-
·
“A Single Name” by Lee Je-Ni
I stand waiting on a frozen page,the waters of memory flowing up with the determination of iceuntil an unspoken name overtakes the horizon. On Monday, I became lost.No—on Tuesday. No—on Wednesday. No—on Thursday. No—on Friday.Though they’re no longer here, once they’re lost again like the order of the week,your feet in their sleeping socks will…
-
·
“Sleeping Together” by Lee Kyeong-Rim
I share the bed with a hole.A hole I’ve only just met.Unsure still how deep it goes or how it first appeared,I descended into the depths of its genitals.All night, the sound of something’s skidding tires.At times, like a boiling downpour.At times, the passing of something like swearing.From beneath the window, the sound people briefly…
-
·
“Marsh” by Lee Kyeong-Rim
60,000 years before my mother gives birth to me,35,000 years before I give birth to my daughter,my daughter’s womb holds an 8,000 year-old babyand my daughter misses my baby in her womb.Each month she goes to the obstetrician for an ultrasound.As a physician nearing 50,000slowly guides the tip of a machine over my daughter’s belly, round…
-
·
“Even Smaller Love Song” by Hwang Dong-Kyu
In part of the lotus ponda single petal plucked from a tree.How fast it falls.Falling, falling, falling still. Laid atop the waterby this hand. 연못 한 모통이나무에서 막 벗어난 꽃잎 하나얼마나 빨리 달려가는지.달려가다 달려가다 금시 떨어지는지. 꽃잎을 물 위에 놓아주는이 손. Hwang Dong-Kyu (1939—) earned his undergraduate and graduate degree from Seoul National University in…
-
·
“Smaller Love Song” by Hwang Dong-Kyu
Still a fewundying gusts of winds.A damp snow fallingduring the evening meal, or not snowbut snow melted midair and tumbling endlesslyas drops of water. Drops which,when you open your hand, are drawn from one breezeto another to brush against your body. 아직 멎지 않은몇 편(篇)의 바람.저녁 한끼에 내리는젖은 눈, 혹은 채 내리지 않고공중에서 녹아 한없이 달려오는물방울,…
-
·
“The Long Arms of ‘I Miss You’” by Moon In-Soo
They say you’re walking the banks of a river in that country.Your small shoulders glisten like a butterfly.Though I only glimpsed from behind, the image of your return hung before my eyes,so I held out my heart and long arms in distant communicationbut reached only wind beneath wind beneath wind beneath wave.After 10, 000 ri, still the words ‘I…
-
·
“Love is the Lack Thereof” by Ko Un
Was it May? June?Seokkoku stems’ blossoms had flowered. If you walked on,settling waves of white Cow Parsnips would be in bloom. A day like this—the last traces of fading sunset,a chill and dreary wind— I realized quietly that lifeis the lack of life.Love,the overwhelming lack of love. And what of me? Several years agoand today, the…