Salvador Dali’s Watch
December 24th, 2013 by Staff
In the Night Times Come Crawling Out, Costa Rica, 2012
by Chunhak Kwon
Translated by Hana Kim
A desk of locked-up secrets
Whenever you open a drawer
times with closed eyes
are pricked by the light
and startled
hide between the pages
In the night
times come crawling out of the openings
and creep along the wall
and hang upside down on the ceiling
In an empty store room of a torn mind
wide-eyed time
and words unable to open their eyes
tumble about bumping against each other
in the severe winds
살바도르 달리의 시계
권천학
비밀을 가둬둔 책상
서랍을 열 때마다
눈감은 시간들이
빛에 찔려 소스라치며
책갈피 사이로 스며든다
밤이면
틈 사이로 기어 나온 시간들이
스멀스멀 벽 위를 기어 다니고
천정에 매달려 물구나무서기를 한다
찢겨나가는 의식의 빈 창고
모진 바람에
눈 뜬 시간과
눈뜨지 못한 낱말들이
서로 부딪치며 나딩군다
Raised in South Korea, poet, essayist and writer Chunhak Kwon (Cheonhak Kwon) studied at the Graduate School of Korea University. Now she resides in Toronto. She made her literary debut in the monthly Hyundai Munhak. Also, she was a columnist for Seoul Newspaper and Kwanak Munhwa Newspaper. Chunhak has published over 10 books, including “Dictionary of Korean Proverb and Quotation”, “The Sky in Bronze Mirror” (poems about the ancient Korean Kingdom of Baekje), “I am Still in an Apple Seed” (poems about trees), “Gaea Being Ill in Bed” (poems about the environment), “Loneliness Virus”, and “The Sorrow of Grass-green Vitamin, Or” (poems about seas/oceans). She has also been the recipient of many awards including the Modern Buddhism Literary Award (first prize), the Si wa Ŭisik Literature Award and the Kyung Hee University Overseas Korean Literary Award (Grand Prize). She served as Editor-in-chief of Blue Note, a web magazine of the Korean Literature Library. The translation of her poems was published in a book entitled, “2H2 + O2 = 2H2O” which was the winner of the First Annual Min Chapbook Competition organized by Harvard University’s Korea Institute and Tamal Vista Publications. Her poems and essays are regularly featured in Toronto Korean-language newspapers.