After you’re gone
--Day Six
After you’re gone don’t leave don’t
After you’ve come don’t come don’t
When you depart they close your eyes, put your hands together and cry don’t go
don’t go
When you’re pressed up against the window like a cat and say open the door open the
door, they say don’t come don’t come
They glue a paper doll onto a bamboo stick and say don’t come don’t come
They throw your clothes into the fire and say don’t come don’t come
That’s why you’re footless
wingless
yet all you do is fly
unable to land
you’re visible even when you hide
you know everything even without a brain
you feel so cold even without a body
That’s why this morning your nightgown hiding under the bed
is sobbing quietly all alone
Water collects in your coffin
You’ve already left the coffin
Your head’s imprint on the moon pillow
Your body’s imprint on the cloud cover
So after you’re gone don’t go don’t
So after you’ve come don’t come don’t
간 다음에
-- 엿새
간 다음에 가지마 하지마
온 다음에 오지마 하지마
떠날 땐 눈 감기고 손 모아 주면서 가지마 가지마 울더니
유리창에 고양이처럼 들러붙어 문 열어 문 열어 했더니 오지마 오지마 하잖아
대나무에 종이 인형 붙여 오지마 오지마 하잖아
불길에 옷 집어넣고 오지마 오지마 하잖아
그래서 너는 발이 없잖아
날개도 없는데
그런데 날기만 하잖아
내려앉지도 못하는데
감추어도 다 보이잖아
뇌도 없는데 다 알잖아
너무 춥잖아 몸도 없는데
그리하여 오늘 아침 침대밑에 숨은 네 잠옷이
혼자서 가늘게 흐느끼고 있잖아
관이 물을 받고 있잖아
관 속에서 너는 이미 떠났잖아
달 베게엔 네 머리 자국
구름 이불엔 네 몸뚱어리 자국
그러니 간 다음에 가지마 하지마
그러니 온 다음에 오지마 하지마
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).