Fate plays with my heart,
without ever considering how much it hurts.
Dr. Kong Kwangkyu
Poet Dr. Kong Kwangkyu was born in 1960 in Donam-dong, Seoul, and grew up in Cheongyang County after spending his childhood years in Hongseong and Boryeong, Chungcheongnam-do. He studied Korean Language and Literature at Dongguk University and completed his graduate studies in Creative Writing at Dankook University, where he earned a PhD in Literature. He made his literary debut in 1986 after winning the New Writers’ Prize of the monthly journal Dongseo Literature. His poetry collections include University Diary (1987), Dry Leaves Come Back to Life (1989), A Brutal Affair (1986), Soju Bottle (2004), A Lump of Horse Dung (2008), Breaking Down the Wall (2013), To Paju (2017), Epic Poem: Mount Geumgang (2019), and Epic Poem: The East Sea (2022).
He has also published nine volumes of prose and poetry-related works, including the essay collection Clear Sorrow (2016) and the illustrated poetry book White Snow (2016), as well as the handwritten selected poems Face Side Dishes (2014). His poetry has been translated into Indonesian in Pesan Sang Mentari (Words of the Sunlight) (2019). In addition, he has published scholarly and critical works such as A Study on the Creative Methods of Shin Kyung-rim’s Poetry (2005), Ways of Writing and Reading Poetry (2006), the poetry-writing textbook Poetry Writing Classes with Stories (2009), and the critical essay collection The Joy of Reading Women’s Poetry (2015).
His poem “Breaking Down the Wall” was selected in 2012 by Korean poets and critics as the best poem of the year. He earned numerous literary honors. He was longlisted for the 2019 University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize.
Like a Puppy and a Cat
Like a puppy at play with a grasshopper
leaping from the woodland beside a country courtyard,
like a cat amusing itself with a cicada
that has flown through the window on a summer day,
fate plays with my heart,
without ever considering how much it hurts.
강아지와 고양이처럼
시골 마당가 숲에서 튀어나온
송장메뚜기를 가지고 노는 강아지처럼
여름날 창문으로 날아든
매미를 가지고 노는 고양이처럼
운명은 내 마음을 가지고 놀아요
내가 얼마나 아픈지 헤아리지도 않고
__________
