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KLN_만족도조사배너

KLN_만족도조사배너

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Dear Angel scrap

by Kim Haengsookgo link Translated by Jake Levinego link March 22, 2018

Author Bio 작가 소개

김행숙

Kim Haengsook

Kim Haengsook made her debut as a poet in 1999. She has authored the poetry collections Adolescence, The Goodbye Ability, The Meaning of Others, and A Portrait of an Echo. She has received the Nojak Literary Prize, Jeon Bonggeon Literary Award, and Midang Literary Award. She is a professor of Korean literature at Kangnam University and has served as a contributing editor for the journal, World Literature. Her poetry has appeared in English in Poems of Kim Yideum, Kim Haengsook & Kim Min Jeong (Vagabond Press, 2017).


 

Dear Angel

 

I heard there is a chair in heaven. I heard there is a left and a right. Sometimes what I think she means is that if something exists in heaven that also exists in this world it must be good,

and then sometimes I think that what she means is that if something exists in this world also exists in heaven it must be bad. Oh moonlight, you are like an echo. The tail blurs . . . trembles . . . light and echoes. At first I think moonlight is good for packaging secrets,

and then I think moonlight is good for unwrapping secrets. Moonlight is a good light to softly kneel down in. Moonlight is a good light to love in. And, also, moonlight is a good light to die in.

Tonight the world is also filled with light good enough for the wings of an angel to get soaked with and, really, it feels like there is no outside to this world. I said there are trains drawing curves underground the city and I said in the train there are long chairs. I told her the story about the people who sit on the long chairs and the whites of their eyes that disappear as if they are dead like people in heaven.

Blowing warm breath into her snowflake ears, I whispered the story of people who kill each other even in their dreams.

Do you love humanity? I asked. And I waited a long time for the response.

 

Translated by Jake Levine & Seo Soeun

Writer 필자 소개

Kim Haengsook

Kim Haengsook

Kim Haengsook made her debut as a poet in 1999. She has authored the poetry collections Adolescence, The Goodbye Ability, The Meaning of Others, and A Portrait of an Echo. She has received the Nojak Literary Prize, Jeon Bonggeon Literary Award, and Midang Literary Award. She is a professor of Korean literature at Kangnam University and has served as a contributing editor for the journal, World Literature. Her poetry has appeared in English in Poems of Kim Yideum, Kim Haengsook & Kim Min Jeong (Vagabond Press, 2017).

Translator 번역가 소개

Jake Levine

Jake Levine

Jake Levine is a professor of creative writing at Keimyung University and an instructor at the LTI Korea Translation Academy. You can learn more about him at his website: http://jakelevine.org.

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