Poetess Yang Geum-Hee was born in 1967 in Jeju, Korea. She has published two collections of poetry books, “Happiness Account” and “Ieodo, Island of Legend and Existence”, as well as one collection of essays titled “Happy Companion”. She was the first president of the Ieodo Literature Association, the editor-in-chief of the Jejuin News, and worked as a research fellow at the Society of Ieodo Research. She served as a researcher at the Jeju Sea Grand Center at Jeju National University and specially appointed professor at Jeju International University. Currently, she is editorial writer for the New Jeju Ilbo, special researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of Jeju National University, vice-president of the Jeju Regional Committee of the Korean PEN Center, Executive of the Jeju Institute for Korean Unification, and Executive of the Korean Association of Ethics. She has won four literary awards.

Sketch of a Winter Pond

Enchanted by the autumn sky,

The gaze that lingered in the air

Unaware of autumn’s departure, frozen in place

With a hazy pair of ice glasses,

In the frigid stillness of the pond

Who threw so many stones over there?

With each rock that flew and fell,

Endured the pain of cracked skin

Caught the gravity of the stone with a dry sob

Between the ice and body temperature,

The stones become even harder

While those digging into the ice flesh

Are stranded on a polar island of ice

Under the ice floes and the shadows of the rocks

The heart still remember, despite the cold

And so does the person who lives holding onto a single rock.

***

겨울연못 스켓치

가을 하늘빛에 취해

물끄러미 허공에 머물던 눈빛

가을이 떠난 줄 모른 채 얼어붙었다

뿌연 얼음선글라스를 쓴 채

싸늘한 정적이 흐르는 연못에

저리도 많은 돌을 누가 던졌을까

돌이 날아와 떨어질 때마다

살갗을 에는 균열의 아픔을 견디며

돌의 중력을 마른울음으로 받아냈겠다

얼음과 체온을 나누는 사이

돌들은 더욱 단단해져

한낮 햇살의 온기에 물렁해진 사이

얼음의 맨살을 파고드는 돌은

극점의 얼음바다에 박힌 무인도

얼음장 밑, 돌섬 그늘이 먹먹할 것이다

차가워져도 잊혀지지 않는 가슴 속에

돌 하나 안고 사는 사람도 그럴 것이다

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