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Two Poems by Moon Boyoung scrap

by Moon Bo Younggo link Translated by Hedgie Choigo link September 5, 2025

Two Poems by Moon Boyoung 이미지

Author Bio 작가 소개

문보영

Moon Bo Young

“and we don't even know what the end looks like but / we stand like the end // When can you say 'The End' and make it sound the prettiest? / Maybe that's the kind of thing we're thinking: / If we all / said 'The End' / instead of 'Cheese' / the moment the photo is taken / the world would be a bit brighter/ Is this the thought we had?” (<끝>, 《책기둥》, 민음사, 2017) / “Kkeut” (End), Pillar of Books, Black Ocean, 2021

Moon Bo Young is a writer who explores the possibility of a gentle, compassionate life through poetry and prose grounded in a uniquely imaginative sensibility.

LOSS

 

Water

 

Rushes up to my knees

 

Then drains away

 

I’m the only one watching this fountain

 

So if I don’t watch the fountain

 

The fountain is wasted

 

There is a faint light in the water

 

So as not to waste you I watch you

 

As I leave I look back

 

The water pressure may cause injury please do not touch

 

Please do not drink the water in the fountain

 

How’s that

 

For a farewell

 

Or a how are you

 

Walk through the overgrown path

 

Past the walnut tree

 

The tree ripples so

 

Leave it to rot

 

Passing a place you’ve passed before

 

Is a kind of review

 

The fountain is no longer watching me

 

So I am for a while wasted

 

 

 

UNDERSTANDING ADAPTATION

 

It takes 0.4 seconds on average for a human to blink. Isn’t that too fast? Olivia thinks people need to live a little slower. Included in this slow life: staying in the bathroom longer, not exercising, closing and then opening your eyes slowly. When someone blinked during a conversation they died and came back to life in 0.4 second intervals, Olivia felt. Or they transformed into someone else. Which would mean that a person transforms 15,000 times a day. Which is also the reason I can’t ever adapt to being myself. Olivia believes in blinking less often but keeping your eyes shut longer. In the world she envisions, it takes people about three seconds to blink. I believe we need to keep our eyes shut a little longer. I think that’s healthier. In the world she made up, people blink significantly slower as they age. For instance, an eighty-year-old takes ten seconds to blink. It takes a long time to finish a round of chess or janggi because the two old people playing take turns closing their eyes for ten seconds while talking.

 

Of old people who keep their eyes closed too long, people say, 

“That person is adapting.”

 

Olivia’s daughter who lives on a marble

just asked “Mom, why does grandpa close his eyes for such a long time before he opens them?”

“Grandpa is adapting.”

“To what?”

 

For Olivia

the ideal person is one who is a little more exhausted than others.

Translator 번역가 소개

Hedgie Choi

Hedgie Choi

Hedgie Choi is a poet, writer, and translator based in Chicago. She received her MFA in poetry from the Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin and her MFA in fiction from The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of Salvage, a poetry collection.

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