skip-navigation

한국문학번역원 로고

TOP

Korean Literature Now

Back to Poetry

That Dog scrap

by Yu Gyeyounggo link Translated by Hedgie Choigo link December 2, 2019

Author Bio 작가 소개

송승언

Song Seungeon

Song Seungeon studied creative writing at Chung-Ang University. He debuted in 2011 when Hyundae Munhak journal selected his poems for its Newcomer Recommendations. He has authored the poetry collections Iron and Oak and Love and Education. His poetry has also appeared in multi-poet anthologies such as Grateful to Have a Dog and Your Poetry, My Book. He is a member of the poetry collective Jangnan (作亂).

Because that dog could be alive, just maybe
I stop every time I encounter a dog on the street
I think it looked like that I think it was about this big I think it was brown I think it
was spotted I stand there
and think about that dog I just can’t remember.

 

 

I was nine then, so that dog is probably dead

I kept crying
That dog who kept trying to crawl on my lap whose body left behind a trace of warmth
who was desperate
who did not want to be left alone who had no name and wanted a name
who knew nothing who knew nothing and wagged its tail
was strange and scary to me

The soft and weak shouldn’t be with the soft and weak
someone told me later
but I didn’t want to know anything smart like that

Because that dog could be alive, just maybe
I dampened with sweat every time I came across a dog on the street
What that dog looked like, I just couldn’t remember
but I could still feel the texture of that tongue licking my fingers like crazy

The tongues of the random dogs I came across were blooming red
and licking the black noses on the street shiny and clean

Twenty years later I got another dog
I no longer shuddered thinking that dog was alive, just maybe, but

I kept crying
because I thought this dog might die, just maybe
this dog might leave a trace of its body’s warmth on my lap and leave me

might desperately, utterly leave me
might return to a nameless world because its name was too heavy
might recognize me might recognize me and so not wag its tail

I heard dogs share the memories of other dogs and believed it

My dad sat the dog down and confessed his sins all night to the dog
Next time, be born as a human, we’ll meet again as humans, live a long, long time

His back, the moment before collapse
looked earnest like the back of a giant dog

But this dog seemed to have no great interest in any of this
Its tail slapped the wood floor, slap, slap
and then it opened its mouth wide in a yawn

Translated by Hedgie Choi

Writer 필자 소개

Yu Gyeyoung

Yu Gyeyoung

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.

Did you enjoy this article? 별점

Did you enjoy this article? Please rate your experience

Send