skip-navigation

한국문학번역원 로고

TOP

Korean Literature Now

Back to Poetry

To Draw a Road scrap

by Ra Heedukgo link October 30, 2015

Author Bio 작가 소개

나희덕

Ra Heeduk

Ra Heeduk made her literary debut in 1989 after winning the JoongAng New Writer’s Award for her poem, “To the Roots.” She is currently a professor in the Department of Creative Writing at Seoul National University of Science and Technology. Ra is the recipient of many literary awards in Korea, including the Kim Su-Young Literary Award, the Hyundae Munhak Literary Award, the Sowol Poetry Prize, the Baek Seok Prize for Literature, and the Daesan Literary Award. Ra has published the poetry collections To the Roots, The Words Stained the Leaves, It’s Not That Far From Here, What is Darkening, Scale & Stairs, Wild Apple, The Time Horses Return, FileName: Lyric Poetry, Possibilist, as well as the essay collections Where Does Purple Come From, A Plate of Poems, Outside Civilization, A Half-Bucket of Water, Remember Those Lights, Stepping towards Arrival, and Wrinkles of Art.

Though it is not certain whether he drew the tree to draw the road
or drew the road to draw the tree,
 
or if he drew the road
to draw the shadow of the tree,
 
the road and the tree have become the wall and the floor to one another.
 
The green shadow was hurled onto the road,
the road could have a fine pattern of leaves,
and the tree stands absent-mindedly as if unloaded of its burden.
 
Who can cut off this peace?
 
But sometimes the axe of time
cuts down trees on the road;
I cannot write down
the shivering of the leaves and all their cries.
 
Some of the roads he drew bear scars from logging,
which makes me stay longer
and follow the winding, disappearing road to the end.
 
To draw a road,
you have to first think of the horizon of the mind
and look at the end of the landscape,
all the way to that desolate vanishing point.
 
I plan to get there, one step at a time.
 

Translated by Kim Won-Chung

 

Writer 필자 소개

Ra Heeduk

Ra Heeduk

Ra Heeduk made her literary debut in 1989 after winning the JoongAng New Writer’s Award for her poem, “To the Roots.” She is currently a professor in the Department of Creative Writing at Seoul National University of Science and Technology. Ra is the recipient of many literary awards in Korea, including the Kim Su-Young Literary Award, the Hyundae Munhak Literary Award, the Sowol Poetry Prize, the Baek Seok Prize for Literature, and the Daesan Literary Award. Ra has published the poetry collections To the Roots, The Words Stained the Leaves, It’s Not That Far From Here, What is Darkening, Scale & Stairs, Wild Apple, The Time Horses Return, FileName: Lyric Poetry, Possibilist, as well as the essay collections Where Does Purple Come From, A Plate of Poems, Outside Civilization, A Half-Bucket of Water, Remember Those Lights, Stepping towards Arrival, and Wrinkles of Art.

Did you enjoy this article? 별점

Did you enjoy this article? Please rate your experience

Send