LTI Korea 
DLKL 
SIWF 
Two Poems by Hwang Sung Hee scrap
by Hwang Sung Hee
Translated by Oh Ye Sul
June 9, 2026
Author Bio 작가 소개
Hwang Sung Hee
Hwang Sung Hee is the author of the poetry collections Alice’s House, Effort to Protect 4, My Ruthless Girl Offender, And Then the Tears Come, and Why I Give You Back to You.
The Umbrella’s Feelings
Why did you steal someone else’s umbrella?
I didn’t steal it
Didn’t you just get off the subway with his umbrella?
Yes, I did
Then how is it not stealing?
He just watched me get off with his umbrella
So that makes it not stealing?
But he just sat there, didn’t say a word
even when I pulled the umbrella out from under his legs and took it with me
You shouldn’t have taken it from the beginning
If the umbrella really mattered he would’ve stopped me
That makes it okay to take it like that?
Someone other than him reported it and you’re the one who came running after me
Thanks to you, you missed the train and he’s gone now
Everyone here will think that you’re the owner of the umbrella
So that makes you innocent?
Why is everyone letting him be? He’s a very mean person
And you a good one?
I’m a compassionate one, I preserved the umbrella’s dignity
Then why have you been crying this whole time?
I don’t know whether the umbrella will like it
There’s no way to know
What Happens When You Read a Signboard
There were letters on a signboard, I read them
and the letters disappeared
The sign went blank and only the frame remained
Look at that, the letters on the sign are gone
Having said this I turned around but there was no one by my side
I hurried to make a place beside me and set you there
I said, I read the letters but they disappeared
For a moment you were puzzled by having sprung into existence
But then you said that it’s only natural for the letters to be gone once the reader’s gone too
If I’m gone both the sign and the letters will become something that never existed, which would be revenge enough on the sign and the letters
But hurt that you suggested that I, of all, should be gone first
I decided to remove you before the sign
Without any scream or struggle you disappeared in an instant,
which made me sad and got me in tears
It seemed that I was responsible for the beginning and end of all this
In eyes full of tears everything blurred into stars
I couldn’t read anything with such eyes for a moment, and all was good
Translator 번역가 소개
Oh Ye Sul
Oh Ye Sul is an assistant professor at Seoul National University. She is interested in the ways modern and contemporary poetry intersect with visual and material culture. She has written on the trans-medial affinities between Elizabeth Bishop and Buster Keaton, Eavan Boland’s museal poetics, and the asymmetrical female friendship in Dion Boucicault’s melodrama.
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