At dawn, craving a sip of water,
I find fireflies with blue-lit eyes drifting through the kitchen—
Ms. Im Sol Nae is an award-winner poet of Korea
Hailing from Korea, the Land of Morning Calm, poet Ms. Im Sol Nae received the Newcomer Award from the monthly literary magazine Jayu Munhak in 1999. Her poetry collections include The QR Code of a Leaf, Amazon, That Transit Station, The Cry of an Awakened Amazon, Hong Nyeo, and many others. She has also received numerous literary honors, including the Yeongnang Poetry Award, the Korean Literary Critics Association Award, and the Korean Lyric Poetry Award, selection as a Sejong Excellent Book, the Poet’s Poet Award, and the Buddhist Literary Writers’ Award. She is 6th President of the Korean Association of World Literature.
The Fireflies’ Shawshank Redemption*
The Fireflies’ Shawshank Redemption*Lights out, I slip into bed.
At dawn, craving a sip of water,
I find fireflies with blue-lit eyes drifting through the kitchen—
As if I’ve stepped into a forest of green moss and clear, rising springs.
Smartphone fireflies, kimchi-fridge fireflies,
Vacuum cleaner fireflies, water purifier fireflies, boiler fireflies—
Different in name, yet glowing in chorus.
On the wall, Van Gogh’s Starry Night burns bright;
Cypresses surge skyward, waves ripple and swell.
How I long to be shocked awake by that celestial light,
To be stunned by that radiant realm
Where stories in our eyes bloom against the void.
Every cord trails like a tail, plugged into pig-nose sockets,
Each one shining—
Into which socket must I fit
My shrunken tailbone, relic of our decline,
To blaze, round and full, like a ten-month sun?
Would blue fireflies flicker through my body then?
Would the Ganges of millennia within me
Spill into a galaxy of blue stars?
Would the fireflies, imprisoned in my flesh,
Ride a hundred thousand volts and cry,
“This is the moment!”—breaking free?
Ah, the tender mountain breeze—
Shawshank Redemption!
Lonely happiness, freedom—
I must have yearned to fasten myself to that eternity.
* Shawshank Redemption: Frank Darabont’s 1994 film, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, a story of an unquenchable longing for freedom.
***
반딧불이의 쇼생크탈출*
소등을 하고 잠 자리에 든다
신 새벽 물 한 모금 땡겨 주방에 들면
파랗게 눈을 뜬 반딧불이들이 날아 다닌다
청태 자욱한 청정지역이다 맑은 샘이 솟는 숲속에
스마트폰 반딧불이, 김치냉장고 반딧불이, 청소기 반딧불이,
정수기 반딧불이, 보일러 반딧불이
다 다른 이름으로 다 같이 환하다
벽에는 ‘별이 빛나는 밤’ 고흐가 환하고
싸이프러스가 솟구치고 물결친다
저 천상의 빛에 감전되고 싶다
공허 속에 눈빛 이야기가 한창인
저 천상의 빛에 감전되고 싶다
죄다 돼지 콧구멍에 긴 꼬리가 꽂힌 채
저마다 환~한…
퇴화로 대변되는 짤막한 내 꼬리뼈를
어느 구녕에 꽂아야 열 달 만삭으로 환할까
그 꼬리뼈 접속하면 내 몸통에도 파란 반딧불이가 켜질까
그 꼬리뼈 접속하면 내 안 수 천 년의 갠지스가
푸른 별 은하로 쏟아질까
몸 안에 갇혔던 내 반딧불이들이 수 만 볼트의 전류를 타고
“이 때다”나를 탈출할까?
아,포근한 산들바람- 쇼생크탈출!
외로운 행복 자유, 그 영원함에 나는 잇대고 싶었으리
*쇼생크탈출:
The shawshank redemption 1994년작
자유에 대한 갈망을 그린 영화. 프랭크 다라본트 감독. [팀 로빈스]와 [모건 프리먼] 주연
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