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An Oil Lamp scrap

by Shin Daljago link Translated by Brother Anthony of Taizégo link January 6, 2017

Author Bio 작가 소개

신달자

Shin Dalja

Shin Dalja is a member of the National Academy of Arts, and has served as the chair of the Society of Korean Poets. She has received the Republic of Korea’s Eungwan (Silver Crown) Order of Cultural Merit, the Chong Chi-Yong Literature Prize, the Daesan Literary Award, and the Gong Cho Literature Award. Her poetry collection Paper has been translated into Mongolian and Spanish, and Passionate Love into German.

A white porcelain oil lamp
that I once picked up cheap in a store in Insa-dong
lay for well over ten years pale and forgotten
in a corner of my house.
One day it caught my eye; I quietly lifted it
and the way its still milky plump flesh
was holding a dead black wick
somehow made me feel sorry for it;
I looked and looked again
then poured in a little oil and lit it.

At first it covered its eyes as though bewildered,
but soon
there was a magnificent flame tingling to its very toes.

Ah, that body, still female,
blazing up
if the fire is fed.
 


 
Translated by Brother Anthony of Taizé and Chung Eun-Gwi

 

“An Oil Lamp,” Father’s Light, MunhakSegyeSa, 1999, 118 pp.

Writer 필자 소개

Shin Dalja

Shin Dalja

Shin Dalja is a member of the National Academy of Arts, and has served as the chair of the Society of Korean Poets. She has received the Republic of Korea’s Eungwan (Silver Crown) Order of Cultural Merit, the Chong Chi-Yong Literature Prize, the Daesan Literary Award, and the Gong Cho Literature Award. Her poetry collection Paper has been translated into Mongolian and Spanish, and Passionate Love into German.

Translator 번역가 소개

Brother Anthony of Taizé

Brother Anthony of Taizé

Brother Anthony of Taizé has lived in South Korea since 1980. He is professor emeritus at Sogang University and chair professor at Dankook University. He has published over fifty volumes of translations of Korean poetry and fiction. His recent publications include volumes of work by Kim Sa-in, Kim Jong-Gil, Ko Hyeong-ryeol, Jeong Ho-seung and Lee Seong-Bok. He took Korean citizenship in 1994. An Sonjae is his official Korean name

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