An Eating Scene (translation by Jeanine Walker & Shim Jaekwan)

An Eating Scene

When the streetlamp roundly pushing up the darkness was 10 won
When the waxing moon was a spoon with a broken-off handle
When we had no good toilet paper and the customer turned his back and swore 
When I saw someone buying gum just to get change
When the man spit from the phone booth and his saliva 
dripped down the glass like a meteor
When a child who came to buy ice cream peered inside 
the freezer and entered Nirvana
When the shelves and Mom’s security shook 
each time the door opened
When men drank and chatted on the wooden floor outside the store 
And then when their voices were two bottles of soju
When the agassi who pouted her hips and mouth got scared 
of the drunk guys for free 
When I screamed to Mom to sell this nasty shop
When Mom, without a word, slapped 
the back of my head
At times like these
Mom and I were always eating.

밥 먹는 풍경

둥그렇게 어둠을 밀어을린 가로등 불빛이 십원일 때
차오르기 시작하는 달이 손잡이 떨어진 숟가락일 때
엠보싱 화장지가 없다고 등 돌리고 손님이 욕할 때
동전을 바꾸기 위해 껌 사는 사람을 볼 때
전화하다 잘못 뱉은 침이 가게 유리창을 타고
유성처럼 흘러내릴 때
아이가 아이스크림을 사러 와
냉장고 문을 열고 열반에 들 때
가게 문을 열고 닫을 때마다
진열대와 엄마의 경제가 흔들릴 때
가게 평상에서 사내들이 술 마시며 떠들 때
그러다 목소리가 소주 두병일 때
물건을 찾다 엉덩이와 입을 삐죽거리며 나가는 아가씨가
술 취한 사내들을 보고 공짜로 겁먹을 때
이놈의 가게 팔아버리라고 내가 소릴 지를 때
아무 말 없이 엄마가
내 뒤통수를 후려칠 때
이런 때
나와 엄마는 꼭 밥 먹고 있었다

—

Ahn Joo Cheol rose to prominence as a poet in Korea after winning the prestigious New Changbi Poet Award in 2002. After spending some years in Germany with his wife and daughter, Ahn published 다음 생에 할일들 (Things to Do in the Next Life) in 2015 and 불안할 때만 나는 살아있다 (Only When I’m Anxious Am I Alive) and 느낌은 멈추지 않는다 (Feeling Never Stops) in 2020. Born in 1975 in Wonju, Korea, Ahn works for the Writers Association of Korea and teaches poetry at Myongi University in Seoul.

Jeanine Walker has been recognized with grants from Artist Trust, Jack Straw Cultural Center, and Wonju, UNESCO City of Literature. She has published poems in Chattahoochee Review, Prairie Schooner, New Ohio Review, and elsewhere, and her full-length collection, The Two of Them Might Outlast Me, was released from Groundhog Poetry Press in 2022. She splits her time between Seattle and Chuncheon, Korea, where she teaches English at Kangwon National University.

Sanskrit scholar Shim Jaekwan is the author of seven books on Buddhism, Indian language and script, and manuscriptology, as well as the translator into Korean of the English textbook, The Hindu Temple. Born in 1968 in Wonju, Korea, he studied at Dongguk University in Seoul and holds a Ph.D. in Hindu Mythological Texts. He currently teaches World Cultures and Indian Studies at Wonju’s Sanggi University.