A Blessing, and: At Sunset, and: The Small House on the Prairie, and: Some Kind of Diligence, and: One Evening, and: Morning, and: Evening Scene, and: At Qinghai, and: On the Qingzang Plateau, and: So Powerful!, and: Guts

Abstract

A Blessing, and: At Sunset, and: The Small House on the Prairie, and: Some Kind of Diligence, and: One Evening, and: Morning, and: Evening Scene, and: At Qinghai, and: On the Qingzang Plateau, and: So Powerful!, and: Guts Lee Si-young Translated by Brother Anthony of Taizé (bio) and Yoo Hui-sok (bio) a blessing A cat crept into a sack full of the yellow gingko leaves that the janitors swept together with care, and gave birth to six kittens. Those delicate creatures, their eyes not yet open, shaking their heads in the dazzling sunlight, looked just like God as a baby. at sunset Clutching an acorn, scampering uphill, that flying squirrel with earnest gestures, hands, and feet! the small house on the prairie Goat cloud spoke to sheep cloud: Let’s be off to home, you and I! Gazing at the setting sun on the red horizon, sheep cloud spoke: “No way. Last night Ma got dragged off, too. If we go home . . .” “Still, let’s go. It’s the only place for us to rest . . .” Sheep cloud plodded after goat cloud, toward the small house on the prairie. The first star came out behind them and lovingly lit their way. [End Page 79] some kind of diligence Ah, she has been here since early morning as usual. That old woman in front of the impressive Gyobo Building at Gwanghwamun, with a single ten-won coin rattling in her basket. one evening Dropping one dry leaf from its body, the autumn gingko tree sways briefly, establishing anew the center of the universe. morning One mullet left unsold, mild-eyed, prowls around in the aquarium. The storekeeper watches, his eyes narrowed. evening scene After finishing the evening’s work, the man in Bomi’s fruit and vegetable store, below Hana Mart, is watching a TV soap next to his wife, laughing, his head inclined to one side. If there is anything on earth that looks like God, I reckon it’s this. at qinghai At the entrance to Kumbum Monastery I met my dead mother. Her chin was quivering. I recognized her, but she said she didn’t know me. She didn’t know me at all. on the qingzang plateau Tell me, sheep, why do you spend the whole day nibbling grass? Once in a while lift your head and look up at the kindly sky. [End Page 80] so powerful! The evening sea rushing in with the tide is beautiful. Sometimes a sea lion is born out there, shakes its mane at the black sky, and roars. guts Where on earth, I wonder, does the strength of the mudflats that produce clams come from. Even in the fiercely boiling broth in a clam-soup restaurant in Insa-dong, there are some that to the very end stay tight-lipped and won’t say, their wide blue sea’s molars clenched shut. [End Page 81] Brother Anthony of Taizé Brother Anthony of Taizé has published more than thirty volumes of translations of Korean poetry. Recently, he published ten volumes of work by Ko Un, along with volumes by Lee Si-Young and Kim Soo-bok. Born in Cornwall in 1942, he has lived in Korea since 1980 and was naturalized as a Korean citizen in 1994. Brother Anthony has received the Republic of Korea Literary Award (Translation), the Daesan Award for Translation, the Korea PEN Translation Prize, and the Ok-gwan (Jade Crown) Order of Merit for Culture from the Korean government. He is also emeritus professor of English at Sogang University and Chair of the International Creative Writing Center at Dankook University. Yoo Hui-sok Yoo Hui-sok is a translator and a professor of English at Jeonnam University, in Gwangju. He has published numerous articles and books of critical studies concerning contemporary Korean literature and has translated books of literary criticism into Korean. His translations of poetry include Patterns by Lee Si-Young. Copyright © 2015 University of Hawai‘i Press