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Okinawa, Tunisia, Francis Jammes scrap

by Kim So Yeongo link November 15, 2014

Author Bio 작가 소개

김소연

Kim So Yeon

Recipient of the 2025 Arts Council Korea Literature Fellowship


Kim So Yeon is a South Korean poet.

The limit we can reach,
things this far, are so banal
like hermit crabs, like hermit crabs

Each of us
like an observatory standing at a spot with a good view
is tall and lonely,
but that’s all

We walked, but on looking back there were no footprints.
Did we crawl? Like hermit crabs, like
hermit crabs?

+

I will not be discreet.
Just like a flower I will raise objections with fragrance.
Interpreting this as scream or silence
I will leave as the dictator’s task.

You, this remote runway that is not you, I running you supporting, I flying up you applauding, we will move apart but we will meet in one place and every time, in the place where we met, at that spot where we leaned shoulder to shoulder pretending to embrace, shoulder to shoulder,
“A good consolation is a love delightful as a young strawberry on the edge of an old torrent.”*
We once saw a hermit crab leaving its home, we saw it moving, throwing away one arm, one leg, then we saw a branch of jasmine falling, we saw the hermit crab place the jasmine blossom on its back then go on walking.

This being the only place
for us to hide is corny
like hermit crabs, like hermit crabs.

+

If my heel is bleeding
tell me about a bunch of strawberries blooming on a cliff.

If your hair gives off
a smell of blood
I will say that it smells of jasmine.

 

Translated by Brother Anthony and Chung Eun Gwi
* Une bonne consolation est un amour charmant comme une jeune fraise au bord d’un vieux torrent (Francis Jammes)

Writer 필자 소개

Kim So Yeon

Kim So Yeon

Kim So Yeon has published four poetry collections, two essay collections, one children’s book, and one picture book. She has received the Nojak Literary Award and the Hyundae Literary Award for poetry. Her poems have appeared in Mānoa.

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