Yong-Mee Cho
Poetess Ms. Yong-Mee Cho made her debut in 1990 through “Hangil Literature.” Her collections of poetry include “Anxiety Eats Away the Soul,” “Ten Thousand Fish Fly Up the Mountain,” “Self-Portrait in Hemp Cloth,” “The Cherry Tree in Bloom at My Villa,” “Memory Planet,” “My Other Names,” and “Your Beauty.” She also has a collection of prose titled “One Hundred Years on the Island.” Yong-Mee Cho has received several awards, including the Kim Dal-jin Literary Award, the Kim Jun-seong Literary Award, the Gosan Literary Award, and the Mokwol Literary Award.
Some Time
A boring and painful life persists,
You tenaciously focus on the hardships of life.
There was a time when I was utterly captivated by the beauty of life.
I leapt in both pain and joy, as if scalding water from a kettle were pouring directly onto the back of my hand.
This is the realm called life,
For its vividness, it can exist nowhere else.
I yearn for delusion and ignorance to retreat like a child before the teeth of a ferocious dog, in the face of formidable concentration.
The more you scream, the more vibrant and vivid your life becomes.
An insipid passion drains me,
This suffering is entirely self-contained and purely material.
Though it is challenging for anyone to achieve perfect serenity,
I aspire to become a martyr who solely concentrates on the sufferings of life.
A beautiful yet dreadful life endures for a while.
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당분간
조용미
지루하고 괴로운 삶이 지속된다
집요하게 너는 생의 괴로움에 집중하고 있다
생의 아름다움에 완전히 매혹당했던 적 있었다
주전자의 뜨거운 물이 손등에 바로 쏟아지듯 고통과 환희를 느끼며 펄펄 뛰었다
여긴 생이라는 현장이다
이렇게 생생하므로 다른 곳일 수 없다
무서운 집중 앞에 미망과 무명이 사나운 개의 이빨 앞에 선 어린아이처럼 뒤로 물러나기를 바란다
통쾌하다 비명을 지를수록 생은 더욱 싱싱해지고, 생생해지고
지루한 열정이 나를 지치게 한다
이 괴로움은 완벽하게 독자적이고 완벽하게 물질적이다
누구나 완벽하게 평화롭기는 어렵다 그래도
생의 괴로움에만 집중하는 순교자가 되고 싶다 아름답고 끔찍한 삶이 당분간 지속된다
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