A single seed falls
Into a crevice of rock.
Dr. Koo Myongsook is an eminent poetess of South Korea
Poet Dr. Koo Myongsook, born in Nonsan, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea, graduated from Sookmyung Women’s University with a degree in Korean literature and later earned her Ph.D. in literature from Bielefeld University in Germany. She received the New Writer’s Award from the monthly literary magazine Simunhak in 1999 and from Poetry and Poetics in 2009.
She has held various academic and cultural leadership positions, including Visiting Professor at Soka University in Japan, and Waseda University, Director of the Sookmyung Leadership Development Institute, Director of the Museum and Cultural Center, President of the Korean Women’s Literary Association, Chief Editor of Our Literature, Chairperson of the Korea Gender Equality Education Promotion Institute, Policy Advisory Member for the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Mediator at the Seoul Family Court, Chief Editor of Siseon, Director of the Literature House Seoul, and Vice President of the Korean Women’s Literary Association.
Currently, she is an Emeritus Professor at Sookmyung Women’s University, President of the Glocal Women’s Network, Director of the Korean Women’s Organizations Council, Director of the National Museum of Korean Literature, Advisory Member for Korea Women Consumers News, Senior Vice President of the Seocho Cultural Center, and Vice President of the World Poetry Literature Society. She serves as the 7th President of the Korean Association of World Literature.
Her poetry collections include How Many Bushels of Rice Has That Woman Washed to Cook?, Walking, Life Is, Sky Tree (selected as an excellent literary book in the 2014 Sejong Book Program), The Art of Flowers, You, Pietà, Heartfelt, Asking the Spring River off the Way of Poetry, and Where Do Clouds Go?.
Her academic publications include Understanding Korean Women’s Literature, The Horizon of Han Moo-sook’s Literature, Women Communicating Through Literature, A Collection of Women’s Literature (From Liberation to the 1960s) Vol. 1-6, Diaspora and Korean Literature, War-time Literary Discourse and the Reconstruction of Collective Memory, and edited works such as Anthology of Women’s Short Stories from the Liberation Period, Anthology of Korean Women’s Essays (1945-1953), Anthology of Korean War-Era Women’s Literature, Bibliography of Works by Korean Women Writers: From Liberation to the 1960s, and Selected Works of Representative Korean Women Poets.
She has received numerous awards, including the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Award, the Manhae “Nim” Poetry Award, the Excellence Award from Poetry and Poetics, the Seocho Writers’ Association Grand Prize, and the Grand Prize from the World Poetry Literature Society.
Roots
RootsA single seed falls
Into a crevice of rock.
A light breeze, out of breath, drifts by and whispers,
“Ride on my back, you cannot live here.”
On the night the torrential rain fell, shoulders crumbling
A mountain bird kept watch, crying in sorrow.
In that narrow edge of a crack,
With no greed at all, growing only enough to endure,
One red blossom opened.
Now a single flower stalk, leaning halfway over,
Rests on a steadfast rock, smiling bright.
***
뿌리
바위틈에 떨어진 씨앗 한 톨
실바람 숨 가삐 날아와 속삭인다
–내 등에 업혀, 예선 너 살 수 없어–
소나기 퍼부어 어깨 으스러지던 날 밤
산새 하나 서럽게 울며 지켜주더니
그 좁은 틈서리에서 아무 욕심 없이
운신할 만큼만 몸을 키우며
한 송이 붉은 꽃이 피었네
몸이 반쯤 기울어진 꽃대궁 하나
든든한 바위에 기대서서 환히 웃고 있다
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