Tub
--Day Four
Lie down with your head on the cutting board.
Don’t cry, in writing no life is without sadness.
Fur plucked, intestines pulled, head drops, oil bubbles, ankles clutched in
huge hands
but your time has yet to arrive.
통
--나흘
도마를 베고 누워라.
울지 마라, 글로 써서 슬프지 않은 인생은 없다.
털이 뽑히고, 내장이 뽑히고, 머리가 떨어지고, 기름이 끓고, 두 발목을 큰 손이
움켜쥐었지만
너는 아직 멀었다.
Midnight Sun
--Day Five
A letter will arrive from a place where your reply can’t be sent
That you’re already here
That you’ve already left you
Hole that knows everything, a letter as luminous as the blue sky will arrive
Like the brain that sees all too clearly after death, a bright letter will arrive
Like the days before you were born, a widely wide letter without yesterday or
tomorrow will arrive
Soft chiming of bells from the carriage made of light
Giggles of a girl in pants made of light, the last train runs above ground
knocking on the nightless world
the world where all the trains on the platform light up at once and silently forget
about you
You can’t go, for you are footless, but the children of your childhood are
already there
A letter will arrive from that bright hole where not even a reply in black on black
can be sent
Your children age in front of you
From that place you departed to, to be reincarnated first
a letter will arrive, written in ink of brightly bright light
From that place where you’ve never encountered darkness
an enormously enormous letter will arrive
like the world of brilliant light a newborn greets for the first time
백야
-- 닷새
네가 답장할 수 없는 곳에서 편지가 오리라
네가 이미 여기 있다고
네가 이미 너를 떠났다고
모든 것을 알고 있는 구멍, 저 푸른 하늘처럼 밝은 편지가 오리라
죽어서 모두 환하게 알게 된 사람의 뇌처럼 밝은 편지가 오리라
네 탄생 전의 날들처럼 어제도 없고 내일도 없는 넓고 넓은 편지가 오리라
빛으로 만든 마차의 방울소리 고즈넉이 울리고
빛으로 만든 바지를 입은 소녀의 까르르 웃음소리 밤 없는 세상을 두드리는
마지막 지하철이 지상으로 올라가고
플랫폼의 기차들이 일제히 불을 켠 채 말없이 너를 잊어 주는 세상
너는 발이 없어 못가지만 네 아이적 아이들은 이미 거기 가 있는
네 검은 글씨에 검은 글씨로 답장조차 할 수 없는 그 밝은 구멍에서 편지가 오리
라
네 아이들이 네 앞에서 나이를 먹고
너 먼저 윤회하러 떠나버린 그곳에서
밝고 밝은 빛의 잉크로 찍어 쓴 편지가 오리라
이 세상에 태어나 한번도 어둠을 맞아 본 적이 없는 그곳에서
지금 막 태어난 아기가 첫 눈 뜨고 마주한 찬란 빛 세상처럼
커다랗고 커다란 편지가 오리라
Born in Seoul, South Korea,
Don Mee Choi is the author of the National Book Award winning collection
DMZ Colony (Wave Books, 2020),
Hardly War (Wave Books, 2016),
The Morning News Is Exciting (Action Books, 2010), and several pamphlets of poems and essays, including
Translation is a Mode=Translation is an Anti-Neocolonial Mode (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2020). She is a recipient of fellowships from the Whiting, Lannan, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations. She was a fellow of the 2019 Artists-in-Berlin-DAAD Program and 2021 Picador Guest Professorship-Leipzig University. She has translated several collections of Kim Hyesoon’s poetry, including
Autobiography of Death (New Directions, 2018), which received the 2019 International Griffin Poetry Prize.
Kim Hyesoon is one of the most prominent poets of South Korea. She lives in Seoul and teaches creative writing at the Seoul Institute of the Arts. Her most recent books in translation are
Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream (Action Books, 2014) and
I’m OK, I’m Pig (Bloodaxe Books, 2014).