G-NT3806KSJP
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Graves





A calling plucks and pulls me apart.
On this crimson hill stony mounds
stand scattered. Clinging on the moonlight,
a song lost everything but its sound
in heartbreak. Ancestors’ records are
buried here. I search every corner.
A song without vestige flows all
over the hill crowded with shadows.
A calling plucks and pulls me apart.
I am called, I am called.
My soul is plucked and pulled apart.







무덤



그 누가 나를 헤내는 부르는 소리
붉으스름한 언덕, 여기저기
돌무더기도 움직이며, 달빛에,
소리만 남은 노래 서러워 엉겨라,
옛 조상(祖上)들의 기록(記錄)을 묻어둔 그곳!
나는 두루 찾노라, 그곳에서,
형적없는 노래 흘러퍼져,
그림자 가득한 언덕으로 여기저기,
그 누구가 나를 헤내는 부르는 소리
부르는 소리, 부르는 소리,
내 넋을 잡아끌어 헤내는 부르는 소리.



Kim Sowol (1902-1934) was born in North Pyongan Province. In high school, he met his lifetime mentor, Kim Ok, a poet and translator who opened a new chapter in Korean poetry by translating European symbolist and imagist poetry into Korean. With Kim Ok’s help, Sowol was able to publish his first book of poetry, Jindallae Flower, in 1925. However, he was unable to find an audience for his poetry, nor was he able to find a way out of his extreme poverty. He is said to have died of a brain aneurysm while taking opium to treat his gout, though suspicions of suicide have lingered.

Jack Jung is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His translations of Korean poet Yi Sang’s poetry and prose are published in Yi Sang: Selected Works by Wave Books. He is a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Davidson College.