They say everyone lives by the stream,

and the stream of time trickling on.

Dr. Siyoung Doung is an eminent poetess from Korea, the Land of Morning Calm

Dr. Siyoung Doung graduated from the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Dongguk University and earned a Ph.D. in Korean Language and Literature from Hanyang University. She further expanded her academic pursuits by studying humanities at Regensburg University in Germany. Her teaching career includes positions as a professor at Korea Tourism University in Korea and Jilin University of Finance and Economics in China. Her literary journey began in 2003 with her poetry debut in the literary magazine Dacheung. Since then, she has published numerous poetry collections, including Future Hunting, In Search of a Strange God, The Phone Call from God, The Eyes of November, The Carnival of Time (Anthology), Was It You, Was It Me, or Was It Longing?, The Scent of Secrets, Aria of Everyday Life, The River Flowing Under the Pen, The Magic Letters, and The Horizon Never Gets Wet. In addition to poetry, Doung has contributed significantly to literary research with works such as Roh Cheon-myung’s Poetry and Semiotics, Korean Literature and Semiotics, and Semiotics of Modern Poetry. Her exploration of literature extends into travel writing, with essay collections like Encountering Culture Through Travel and Encountering Travel Through Literature. Her literary excellence has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including the Park Hwa-mok Literary Award (2010), Poetry and Poetics Young Poet Award (2011), the Grand Prize at the Korean Buddhist Literature Awards (2018), the 32nd Dongguk Literary Award (2019), the Yeongrang Literary Award for Criticism (2020), and the 7th Woltan Park Jong-hwa Literary Award by the Korean Writers’ Association (2021). Most recently, she received the Literary Youth Work Award in 2024. In recognition of her contributions to literature, she was also a recipient of a creative grant from the Arts Council Korea in 2005. Dr. Doung is currently the President of the Korean Association of World Literature and lives in Seoul with her husband, a former university professor.

The person in the painting looks out

They say everyone lives by the stream,

and the stream of time trickling on.

 

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the appearance

“was originally belongs to others,”

 

The daffodils, hidden like bones, emerge and smile, their yellow and bright.

 

Flower buds holding back their pretty laughter,

when did flowers begin to smile?

I almost begin to wonder.

 

You can ask when I came.

When March, secretly, sits beside me,

 

Veins of the wind, perhaps,

or the summer that ached in sunlight,

the unconscious creeps upward through consciousness.

 

Just as a dream cannot be dreamed again,

yesterday cannot be relived.

 

People inside the painting

look out to the world beyond.

 

Even those in the painting

also yearn for the outside.

 

People outside gaze at those within,

“If their eyes meet, it’s okay to admire one another,”

no, even to love one another, nothing is wrong.

 

Right now,

to anyone,

like a puff of clouds

you can ask if I have crushed time.

 

The moment is tasting time.

***

그림 속 사람이 밖을 내다보다

누구나 시냇가에 산다며,

시간 시내가 졸졸 흘러가.

 

모습은

‘본래 남의 것이라’ 해도 틀린 말은 아니다

 

뼈처럼 숨어 살다 나와 웃는 수선화 노랑또랑한다

 

예쁘게 웃음 참는 꽃봉오리들이

꽃들은 언제부터 웃기 시작했나?

생각할 뻔한다

 

언제 왔냐 물어도 된다

나 몰래 삼월이 ,내 곁에 앉아 있을 땐

 

바람의 혈관인가

햇살에 몸살났던 여름인가

무의식이 의식 위로 스멀스멀 긴다

 

꿈을 다시 꿈꿀 수 없듯

어제는 다시 살 수 없어도 된다

 

그림 속 사람들이

그림 밖을 내다본다

 

그림 속 사람도

밖을 그리워한다

 

그림 밖 사람들이 그림 속 사람들을 본다

‘시선이 마주치면 서로 감상해도 된다’

아니, 서로 사랑해도 아무 일 없다

 

지금,

누구에게나,

뭉개구름처럼

시간을 뭉갰냐고

물어도 된다

 

순간이 시간을 맛보고 있다

***

Time smokes laughter

It rains like the news, and snows like an advertisement.

 

The sound of ripples and smoke…

Things gossip more than people.

 

Caught up in life,

we must seize opportunities, grab what we want,

and get a job… get a something…

 

we must look through the cracks of the ‘now.‘

 

Even if we can’t keep our promise,

we must keep the ‘flow.‘

 

The present is an exclamation point.

Painting paints on nouns.

 

Once we start living, we want to keep living.

It’s a drug, more than a drug.

 

Time smokes laughter.

***

시간이 웃음을 담배피우다

뉴스처럼 비가 오고 광고처럼 눈이 온다

 

파문 연기 소리..

물건들이 사람들보다 더 많이 소문낸다

 

삶에 잡혀 와서,

기회를 잡아야 하고 원하는 것을 잡아야 하고

직장도 잡아야 하고 ..잡아야 하고

 

’지금‘이란 틈으로 내다봐야 한다

 

약속을 못 지켜도

’흐름‘은 지켜야 한다

 

지금은 느낌표

명사들에 색칠하는 물감

 

한 번 살기 시작하면 계속 살고 싶다고

마약보다 마약이라고

 

시간이 웃음을 담배피운다

_______________________

Read: Korean Poetry: Adjectives of Memory