Korean Poetry in Translation

Spring Garlic by Jung Kut-byol Translated by Chae-Pyong Song and Anne Rashid    Spring Garlic   Like an obscenity, like a clenched fist, a white garlic clove writhes; I rub my burning eyes. The breath-taking intensity careens like an explosion: dark green spring garlic mixed with pepper paste between lettuce and pepper— the garlic flower of Namdo, South Province, white with a garlic scent. Oh, the fresh spring night. Feel the sensuous energy that rolls up— not a flower, not a plant. Shhh! Shhh! See how it spews its venom, courageous, like a guerilla, into the spring sea. Spring garlic mixed with pepper paste between lettuce and green pepper— the Namdo seed garlic, white with a garlic scent. Jung Kut-byol (1964-) was born in Naju, Jeollanam-do. She is a professor of Korean literature at Myungju University in Seoul.  Working as both a poet and a critic, she has published four poetry collections: My Life: a Birch Tree (1996), A White Book (2000), An Old Man’s Vitality (2005) and Suddenly (2008), along with two collections of critical essays: The Poetics of Parody (1997) and The Language of Poetry Has a Thousand Tongues (2008).  She has also edited an anthology entitled In Anyone’s Heart, Wouldn’t a Poem Bloom?: 100 Favorite Poems Recommended by 100 Korean Poets (2008).

Spring Garlic by Jung Kut-byol

Translated by Chae-Pyong Song and Anne Rashid

  

Spring Garlic

 

Like an obscenity, like a clenched fist,

a white garlic clove writhes;

I rub my burning eyes.

The breath-taking intensity

careens like an explosion:

dark green spring garlic mixed with pepper paste

between lettuce and pepper—

the garlic flower of Namdo, South Province,

white with a garlic scent.

Oh, the fresh spring night.

Feel the sensuous energy

that rolls up—

not a flower,

not a plant.

Shhh! Shhh!

See how it spews its venom, courageous,

like a guerilla, into the spring sea.

Spring garlic mixed with pepper paste

between lettuce and green pepper—

the Namdo seed garlic, white with a garlic scent.


Jung Kut-byol (1964-) was born in Naju, Jeollanam-do. She is a professor of Korean literature at Myungju University in Seoul.  Working as both a poet and a critic, she has published four poetry collections: My Life: a Birch Tree (1996), A White Book (2000), An Old Man’s Vitality (2005) and Suddenly (2008), along with two collections of critical essays: The Poetics of Parody (1997) and The Language of Poetry Has a Thousand Tongues (2008).  She has also edited an anthology entitled In Anyone’s Heart, Wouldn’t a Poem Bloom?: 100 Favorite Poems Recommended by 100 Korean Poets (2008).

“One Pebble” by Kim Nam-ju

“One Pebble” by Kim Nam-ju

Translated by Chae-Pyong Song and Anne Rashid


Between the sky and the earth

not a single breeze stirred, and I could not breathe.

That stifling, heart-wrenching day

my friend and I walked along the bank.

I told him we would become pebbles—

small stones

that would create a little ripple on the river

and disappear quickly.

On a dark night without sunlight

I told him we would become a spark—

a light

that would flicker like a firefly

and die out as soon as dawn breaks.

I didn’t ask my friend then,

how much of history would depend on the pebble?

I didn’t ask my friend then,

how much darkness would the light push away?

I was just content to have a friend

with whom I could share death.


Kim Nam-ju (1946-1994) was born in Haenam, Jeollanam-do and studied English at Chonnam National University. He is known as one of the major resistance poets in South Korea, leading the people’s movement in the 1970s and 80s that ultimately toppled the dictatorship in Korea. Because of his activism, he was imprisoned twice, for more than ten years in total. In prison where paper and pencil were not allowed, he wrote many poems on milk cartons with the nail he made by grinding a toothbrush. These poems were later published in two collected volumes of his prison poetry, The Sunlight on the Prison Bar. His poetry bears witness to the tyranny of dictatorship and the hardships of the oppressed. He published such poetry collections as Requiem, My Sword My Blood, One Fatherland, The Weapon of Love and In This Lovely World. He received the Yun Sang-won Literary Award in 1993 and the National Literary Award in 1994. His poems have also been memorialized by Korean activist, rock singer An Chi-hwan in his album entitled “Remember.”