Metaphor Ban (translation by Jack Jung)

Metaphor has been stolen from the poet.
The ocean is no longer a place of metaphor.
n’t said metaphorically in a poem that she was entering water.
A ribbon of metaphor was tied on the vast world.
Forgiveness must be sought for these acts.

Seasons have been stolen from the poet.
After spring, summer does not follow. It is hot winter.
Flowers blossom all at once then die all at once.
n’t, who once described a bud of a flower was like a tightly held fist
As a metaphor in a poem, must seek forgiveness.

God was stolen from n’t.
It is now hard to pray to God.

For the chirping songs of baby chicks, forgiveness must be sought.
This spring, the chicks got stuck on fences.
They hang from people’s chests and sleeves.

Black rain raining on stolen spring.
From the eaves, pink flesh of stolen God
Splattering down down down.
I can’t bring myself to say that even the ocean is stolen.

Is there any metaphor in this country now.

Perhaps if we are forgiven
Perhaps if every poem in this world is forgiven.

은유 금지

시인은 이제 은유를 빼앗겼다.
바다는 이제 은유의 장소가 아니다.
않아가 시 속에서 물속으로 들어간다고 은유적으로 말한 것.
광막한 세계를 은유의 리본으로 묶은 것.
용서를 구해야 한다.

시인은 이제 계절을 빼앗겼다.
봄 다음에 여름 안 온다. 더운 겨울 온다.
꽃들 한꺼번에 피고 한꺼번에 목숨 놓는다.
않아가 시 속에서 꽉 쥔 주먹 같은 꽃봉오리
은유적으로 말한 것 용서를 구해야 한다.

않아는 이제 하나님을 빼앗겼다.
하나님께 기도하기 어려워졌다.

병아리떼 쫑쫑쫑 노래한 것, 용서를 구해야 한다.
올봄에 병아리는 담장에 걸렸다.
사람들 가슴에, 옷깃에 매달렸다.

빼앗긴 봄에 검은 비 내리는 것.
빼앗긴 하나님의 분홍빛 살이 처마에서
후드득후드득 떨어지는 것.
차마 빼앗긴 바다라고 은유적으로는 말 못하겠다.

이제 이 나라에 은유가 있을까.

만약 용서해주신다면
이 세상의 시를 다 용서해주신다면.

—

Kim Hyesoon is a major South Korean poet and a feminist thinker. Her 12th book of poetry, Autobiography of Death (New Directions 2018), translated by Don Mee Choi, was the winner of The Griffin International Poetry Prize. Phantom Pain Wings, also translated by Choi, is her most recent book of poetry to be translated into English.

Jack Jung studied at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was a Truman Capote Fellow. He is a co-translator of Yi Sang: Selected Works (Wave Books 2020), the winner of 2021 MLA Prize for a Translation of Literary Work. He teaches at Davidson College.