입을 다물다
어디서 올까 그녀의 향기
몸 안에 양귀비꽃이 들어 있는 모양이다
어쩌다 입을 여는데
꽃잎들이 풀풀 나와
그녀와 나 사이를 떠다닌다
이것도 아름답지만
오래도록 그녀는 입을 다물고
그래서 나는 그 옆에 머물고
비밀
몰래 벌어지는 일들에서
설탕 묻은 장난감 냄새가 난다
태엽 인형의 벨소리
끊어질 듯 이어지고
등 뒤에선
낮은 북소리
모두가 잠든 밤에
자라는 숲
저물녘 피는 진홍색 분꽃
어딘가 묻혀 있을
버섯의 냄새
말이 내뱉어지는 순간
불투명 유리창에 금이 간다
마술이 끝나고
다락 문이 열릴 때
펼쳐지는
먼지 앉은 내부
달과 돌
돌이 식는다
밤의 숲 속을 헤매다 주운
창틀 위에 올려놓은
돌이 식는다
어두운 방에서 빛나던 돌
가만히 보면 내 눈썹까지 환해지던
그 둥근 빛 아래서
나의 어둠을 용서했고
침묵은 말랑말랑한 공을 굴렸다
들고양이가 베고 잤을까
고양이의 꿈을 비누방울로 떠오르게 하던
돌이 식는다
자줏빛 비가 내리고
벼락의 도끼날이
숲의 나무들을 베어버리는 동안
돌 위에 얹고 있는
내 손이 식는다
반달의
나머지 검은 반쪽이
궁금해졌다
나는 쓴다
물고기의 싱싱한 시체를
잎사귀에서 물방울이 증발한 흔적을
증기를 내뿜는
화물 기차의 검은 몸체를
수챗구멍에 엉켜 있는
늙은 남녀의 잿빛 머리카락을
쓰레기차에
내려앉은 환한 눈더미를
보도블록 틈
손가락만한 물웅덩이에
고인 달을
선호하는 콤플렉스의 목록을 작성하며
병원 수세식 변기 속
물에서 꼬물거리는 벌레 같은
서른다섯
죽기엔 너무 늦었고
내년 가을에도
황금빛 이파리들이 조용히 떨어질 것이므로
너무 오래 머물렀을 때
이성미
Listen to the original in Korean performed by Lee Sung-Mi:
Lee Sung-Mi was born in 1967 in Seoul, and her early years were spent there. After graduating from Ewha Women's University in 1991, she worked in a publishing house for a period of time. She now lives in a rural part of Wonju where she practises bee-keeping.
Lee is a fiercely independent individual who is kind and gentle in manners, progressive in mind, and always careful in judgement. This quality can be felt in her rhythm and seen in how her poems are able to merge spiritual reflections on nature and acute observations of subtle ordinary emotions. Yet, there is also often a glimpse of some primordial darkness that has allowed her voice to play with ambiguity.
I first met Lee at the Toji Cultural Centre in the autumn of 2010. We were both among the season's slate of resident writers there, and my own stay came about through the sponsorship of the Toji Cultural Foundation. These transcreations were made during that time, and the four poems are from Lee's first collection, When Someone Stays Too Long (너무 오래 머물렀을 때), published in 2005.
Lee is a fiercely independent individual who is kind and gentle in manners, progressive in mind, and always careful in judgement. This quality can be felt in her rhythm and seen in how her poems are able to merge spiritual reflections on nature and acute observations of subtle ordinary emotions. Yet, there is also often a glimpse of some primordial darkness that has allowed her voice to play with ambiguity.
I first met Lee at the Toji Cultural Centre in the autumn of 2010. We were both among the season's slate of resident writers there, and my own stay came about through the sponsorship of the Toji Cultural Foundation. These transcreations were made during that time, and the four poems are from Lee's first collection, When Someone Stays Too Long (너무 오래 머물렀을 때), published in 2005.
Lee Sung-Mi is a Korean poet. Her poems have appeared in reputable Korean literary journals such as Literature and Society (문학과사회) and Modern Literature (현대문학). Her first book of poems, When Someone Stays Too Long (너무 오래 머물렀을 때), was published by Moonji Publishing in 2005. She also wrote Hyewha-dong La bohème (혜화동 라보엠), a free modern adaptation of Puccini's La bohème, which was performed by the Progressive Opera Studio in 2009.
Gwee Li Sui is a poet, a graphic artist, and a literary critic. He wrote Singapore's first full-length graphic novel, Myth of the Stone, in 1993 and published a volume of humorous verse, Who Wants to Buy a Book of Poems?, in 1998. A familiar name in Singapore's literary scene, he has written essays on a range of cultural subjects and also edited Sharing Borders: Studies in Contemporary Singaporean-Malaysian Literature II (2009), Telltale: Eleven Stories (2010), and Man/Born/Free: Writings on the Human Spirit from Singapore (2011).
