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Readings
A Poetry Reading by Poet Jin Eun-young "Long Fingers' Poem"
Long Fingers’ Poem Writing a poem is because the work of using my fingers is more important than that of using my head. My fingers, are stretched farthest from my body, Look at the tree, Like a branch farthest from the trunk, I touch, night’s quiet breathing, sounds of flowing water, heat of other burning trees. Everything points at other things. A thing that makes a turn and touches its own body is not a branch. The farthest branch is the most tender. It’s easily broken. The branch can’t absorb water, doesn’t bear up a tree. Raindrops start to fall. Still I write. I’m getting out of myself, farthest away. At the end of my fingers, time’s leaves come out of buds. translated by Eun-Gwi Chung
By Korean Literature Now
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Readings
A Poetry Reading by Poet Kim Haengsook "Underground Traveler 2084"
Underground Traveler 2084 1. Night light and day light pour out of the same place. I’ve almost become the underground. The underground is a worn-out world. As I wander around for a hundred years watching the new world wear down, my body turns into mold spores that aspirate into the air. My body becomes humidity and chill . . . becomes like ambience, a feeling, or a mood: something hard to express in words. People walk around like machines. Arrows float before their eyes like bright baby goldfish. I become the rails, a flame, darkness, a train, stairways, a station attendant, lockers, Mozart, Vivaldi. I’m retro. Some things past are bound to return. “I’m looking for a missing child. A six-year-old girl. She was wearing a baby blue dress and white tights. Her clothes and face must be dirty like some beggar. And since ninety years have passed . . .” I’m the clipped shadow of that six-year-old girl. If her shadow remains, she can come back. “This is a bad dream!” you scream as you rub the white face you found inside black hair. 2. And day darkness and night darkness are homogenous. We took shelter in the subway from storms and blizzards. We went down into the deepest darkness and imagined life after Earth’s destruction. What we imagined became reality. The reality of an underground traveler. Traveling happens between reality and dreams, between life and death. If nine people are alive then one is dead, and if nine people are visible, one can’t be seen. That’s how it goes. “This must be a bad dream,” you mumble as you rub the black face you found inside white hair. But don’t you think that sometimes one person is alive and nine are dead, and one person is visible and nine can’t be seen? Are you an alive person? I’m not sure. For every one thing I know there are nine things I don’t. That’s how it goes. Making an immortal itinerary, I wander every metro in the world in this infinite accommodation. As soon as I think I know who those countless organisms lined up on the underground platforms are, I realize I don’t. But then again, I can see through them. After a bomb strapped to the chest of a man exploded, my world collapsed. Every person became everybody’s night. translated by Jake Levin and Soo-hyun Yang
By Korean Literature Now
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Readings
A Poetry Reading by Poet Kim Haengsook " The Future 1984"
The Future 1984 Even with nothing written in it, the book was a compromising possession. George Orwell, 1984 Orwell’s river still runs . . . Arthur Blair’s shadow was thrown over and over into the river named George Orwell until Arthur Blair became the writer George Orwell. Arthur Blair’s shadow did not follow the river current. Staring at his shadow that was not swept with the current, the writer was seized by a strange feeling. Whether it goes east or west, it is said life flows like water in a river, and yet the dregs of life pool like puddles. The First, Second, Third, and Fourth Industrial Revolutions swept through the world . . . swapping out landscapes like broken windows. If you can number the river water, if you can cut it up like you cut up fabric to sell, negotiate the price per unit, if you can divide it into North and South, if you can divide it like people, then people that dull as they look at dusk fall on the purple river are not really people. They are cliffs. George Orwell wrote 1984 in 1948 . . . And he died in 1950. Every night my friend George Orwell coughed, his phlegm and blood boiled, and his bent shadow stretched into the future 1984 . . . Comrade Orwell, in 1984, 1994, 2004, and 2014, in my 20s, my 30s, and my 40s, I lived in Korea. People are like broken records, saying every ten years even the rivers and mountains change, but things not taken by the flow of the river, things not taken by the passage of time, they stiffen up and stand in the future fog like canes that belong to stubborn old men. They are harder than ghosts, so you can touch them. And the year 1984 is opened up like a new book someone stopped reading. So you’re on your way home, carrying a book you just bought. In the future . . . This book will put you in danger. Orwell whispers, “If a book is a compromising possession, then we will be compromised, and if we are compromised then the book is even more compromising. This suspicion will continue, become continuous, it will deepen, deepening, and your life will get shaken to its roots. No, no, you deny it. If the future is not present, how do you accept it? How can you fight the future and say you have already lost or won?” translated by Jake Levin and Soo-hyun Yang
By Korean Literature Now
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Readings
A Poetry Reading by Poet Jin Eun-young "After That Day"
After That Day Dad, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was born so tiny, just over two kilograms. Sorry I’ve stayed around you for such a short time, too brief to reach twenty years old. Mom, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for not charging my cell phone when I went to the academy at night. Sorry I couldn’t contact you for a week when I got back from the ship this time. Granny, I’m sorry to make you cry more than all the tears of the past years. So sorry, I couldn’t show you my life ripening warmly and tenderly cooking a pancake with you. Dad, Mom, I’m sorry. I’m sorry to make it rain like tears on my dad’s tired head. Dad, I’m sorry to make the wind blow in a sad whisper to you. Mom, I’m sorry to keep you wearing black shirts all the time when all the colors of fall fit you so well. Mom, there’s a gentle cloud here that carries me like my dad’s broad back. Here, the sunlight is fluttering warm through the clouds like a ribbon worn by friends, here the same scarlet sun sets in. There’s a hammock hanging between two pillars of your memory, Mom and Dad. If I lie in that hammock and take a nap I am still a child with chubby cheeks, running my fingers through hair behind my coy ears. A child of Mom and Dad, both vigorous, cheering up among the largest families of the greatest grief. Dad, I have friends here. I have friends who tell me things like this. “Your eyes, without double eyelids, are so pretty when they quietly become round.” “You have such a sweet voice, Your straight hair shines like the starlight on the water.” Dad! Mom! Do you remember the song I sang with my friends sitting on a bench with cherry blossoms falling around? I am with a boy who plays guitar well and girls who sing well. I am with cats with super-soft fur like touching music. I am with Mom’s night company and my pink hand mirror. I am with my fair face, seventeen years old reflected in the mirror, we’re all here together and happy. Dad, don’t be sad if I can’t visit you often in your dreams because I’m busy playing with my friends. Dad, don’t wake up at 3:00 a.m. and keep looking at my picture. Dad, don’t get upset even if I get to like my friends here too much. Mom, if Dad gets upset, please give him a tight hug instead of me. Ha-eun, my sister, if Mom feels sad, please give her a tight hug instead of me. Sung-eun, if Ha-eun feels sad, please make your favorite lemonade for her. Ji-eun, if Sung-eun feels sad, sing a song for her instead of me. Dad, if Ji-eun feels sad, please carry her up on your back lightly instead of me. Auntie, embrace the tired shoulders of Mom and Dad. Friends, wipe away my family’s tears. Thanks, Ha-eun, my twin sister. Thank you so much for coming into the world, holding hands with me. Let us, I here, and you there, protect Mom, Dad, and our sisters. I will be happy as long as you are happy. I will be loved as much as you are loved. You understand that, right? Dad, Dad! I am a rainbow-like child that rises behind a great flood of grief. Thank you for making me one of the coolest names in the sky. Mom, Mom! Thank you for singing the song of truth, the clearest song among the songs I hope to sing. Mom and Dad, thank you for loving me more after that day. Mom and Dad, thank you for loving me so dearly. Mom and Dad, I am Ye-eun,1 a child of two persons who walk for me, who starve for me, who shout and fight for me, who want to live as the most sincere and honest mom and dad in this world. I am Ye-eun of all of us, the forever beloved child, even after that day. Today is my birthday. Yoo Ye-eun was a second-year student at Danwon High School in Ansan who died in the Sewol ferry disaster on April 16, 2014. On October 15, Ye-eun’s parents, three sisters, and her friends gathered at the space named “Healing” in Ansan city and held Ye-eun’s seventeenth birthday party. It was also the birthday of Ha-eun, Ye-eun’s twin sister. On behalf of Ye-eun who couldn’t attend the birthday party, poet Eun Young Jin recited the story of Ye-eun through this poem. translated by Eun-Gwi Chung
By Korean Literature Now
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Readings
Short Story Reading by Kim Bong-gon
A pale yellow light seeped into the sea of blue. The light calmed me, and I changed position to float on my back. I heard the muffled chop-chop of waters as Young-woo swam around. For a brief moment, the sky took on a pinkish orange hue. The sun was coming up from below the bridge on the left, and the dense mat of cattails in the distance was shaking hard in the wind. The blue light was being pushed further to the right. With Young-woo swimming behind me, I went up to the bank. I had 37 missed calls—all from Director Park. It was half past six. Director, where are you? Director, hello? Director. Hey, where are you? Are you nuts? Will you fuckin’ get a grip? Answer the phone. Hey, whoever you’re sleeping with, he’s not going to make your film happen. Director, please pick up. Don’t tell me you want to play yourself in the film. Director Bong, did something happen? Please call. Shaking myself dry, I looked back at Young-woo. Like a white buoy, he was floating in place. I couldn’t read his expression from where I was, but I imagined him to be smiling. You’re still trash after all these years. And I’m just horny as hell. Let’s never meet again, I mumbled to myself. I got dressed and found the exit. Nearby, there was a tunnel leading to the outside. The last I looked, Young-woo was deep underwater. Near the floodgate, I was swept up in the sting of rejection. It was like deja vu—me turning him down yet left feeling dirty. When Young-woo admitted he didn’t like me, I felt like I was shunned by everyone I knew, even though he was just one person. Why couldn’t I differentiate the two. I was torturing myself with my thoughts and turning into a monster. Couples who look alike can be quite an ugly sight, he once said. Why did I think of it as his way of getting rid of me, when he was in fact in self-denial. Why in the world did I fall for someone like you. Not anymore, I decided. I won’t let you play me. I vowed to myself that I will have changed the moment I exit this tunnel, flooded with white light. I rang Director Park. But this time, she was the one who didn’t pick up. I continued walking—barefoot, forgetting I hadn’t packed my shoes—toward the end of the tunnel. Yeah, taking Director Park’s advice has always turned out well. I have no time to waste. Director Park, I’m sorry. Please wait for a while. You know how I get sometimes. This is the last time, I promise. But hey, you know, we could also make this into a film. You probably don’t think so, but I think it could. I must make sense of this rendezvous. I didn’t want to let him steal my sense of irony or sadness. I couldn’t be the one giving again. This feels like my role, or is it just me? Am I crazy for thinking so? I didn’t answer when she called back. Turning off my cell phone, I flung it to the ground. The sun was up, and it couldn’t have been brighter. The silhouettes had all restored their colors. The foam created by Young-woo’s strokes sparkled in the sun. I took out the clothes I had worn at work for Young-woo to get changed into. At least they’re dry, I’m glad they don’t smell, I thought. Seeing that I had returned, Young-woo slowly made his way to the bank. The hum of cicadas was growing intense, and Young-woo stopped for breath midway. After gazing at him for some time, I buried my face in my knees. When I lifted my head, he was closer than before. Young-woo was quietly swaying to the flow of the river, or perhaps, to the speed of summer. translated by Park Kyoung-lee
By Kim Bong-gon
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Readings
A Poetry Reading by Poet Chong Hyon-jong "Dew"
Dew Chong Hyon-jong Look at the river, our blood. Look at the wind, our breath. Look at the soil, our flesh. Look at the clouds, our philosophy. Look at the trees, our poetry. Look at the birds, our dreams. Oh, look at the insects, our loneliness. Look at the horizon, our longing, flowers’ ecstasy, our joy. Where are you heading for? Into whose body? With your heart going pit-a-pat. Into whose breath? The road is open, the infinite of the road - A tree breeds a cloud, a cloud breeds the river, and the river breeds birds, and the birds breed a wind, and a wind breeds a tree... The cool and green road is open. The swirl of the road, drunken and dizzy. The breath, the waterway, a blood vessel... The road, the grave spider web a dew drop yielded there - (Emptiness becomes subtle existence.) Dew that devoured the sun, a thing of all, Dew made from the rolling wind, of all, Dew that baked the lightning, of all, Gathered as a drop, the juice of all, Dew that slept with thunder and bore thunder Dew, the mirror of Neptune and Pluto Dew, passing through the worms’ gut, rolling in the voice of birds, finally formed on the grass leaves.... translated by Chung Eun-gwi
By Korean Literature Now
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Readings
A Poetry Reading by Poet Kim Sun-woo "Dogtooth Violet"
Dogtooth Violet My old love called me at midnightand asked if I ever masturbate.I said I do sometimes.He asked who I think about when I do it.“No one,” I said, though I asked, “Does a flower openits buds only when it thinks of butterflies and bees?”He couldn’t understand my words.The dogtooth violet…the flower raising a feeble stalkthrough hard-packed soil and unmelted snowon a hill below Namhaekeumsan came to ming.The feel of sunlight on the stalkand the old longing of moisture to tickle rootletsat the start of the thaw made my breasts swell.“In the language of flowers dogtooth violet means wanton woman.Do you think the wind shakes the stalk?It’s the passion within the stalk that produces the wind.See how its two legs lie down like grass.”Even with no one to knock it down,a dogtooth violet is a dogtooth violet.It burns hot as hardwood charcoal. From If my tongue refuses to remain in my mouth (Autumn Hill Books, 2018)Translated by Won-Chung Kim and Christopher Merrill
By Korean Literature Now
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Readings
A Poetry Reading by Poet Kim Haengsook "Dear Angel"
Detailed Information Date: 2018.3.23 Provider: LTI Korea Running Time: 02:19 Writer: Kim Haengsook Language: English More information on Korean literature writers http://library.ltikorea.or.kr
By Kim Haengsook
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Readings
A Poetry Reading by Poet Shim Bo-Seon "Questions"
Detailed InformationDate: 2018.3.23Provider: LTI KoreaRunning Time: 02:17Writer: Shim Bo-SeonLanguage: EnglishMore information on Korean literature writers http://library.ltikorea.or.kr
By Shim Bo-Seon
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Readings
A Poetry Reading by Poet Shim Bo-Seon "Today, I"
Detailed InformationDate: 2018.3.23Provider: LTI KoreaRunning Time: 02:02Writer: Shim Bo-SeonLanguage: EnglishMore information on Korean literature writers http://library.ltikorea.or.kr
By Shim Bo-Seon
