Eagles in the Himalayas

 Written by Choi Dongho

Translated from the Korean by Kim Kooseul and Darcy Paquet

Narrated by Bill Wolak

 

The eagles in snowy peaks in the Himalayas

When their beaks become too weak to tear food

Seem to fill themselves with life-force

 

To help them to soar up again

Breaking old beaks, by hitting their heads

Against the high cliffs of snowy peaks

 

When the earth’s language

Unable to pierce through the snowstorm of the blank page

Hangs at the cliff of the pen’s nib

 

Before my eyes loom the skulls

Of the Himalayan eagles rising up the cliffs of snowy peaks

Having cast off their old beaks

 

 

Choi Dongho is a poet, critic, and scholar who has earned numerous major prizes and honors. A member of Korean National Academy of Arts, he is a Distinguished Professor at Kyungnam University, as well as a Professor Emeritus. He is the Chair of the Changwon KC International Literary Prize and President of the KS World Poetry Festival. His work has been translated into many languages including the English version, Monarch Butterfly (Mundus Artium Press, 2021) supported by the Daesan Foundation.

Kim Kooseul  is a South Korean poet, scholar and translator.  Here latest book translated into English is Lost Alleys, Mundus Artium Press, 2020. She has earned numerous major prizes and honors. A specialist in English and other literary traditions, she is a Professor Emeritus at Hyupsung University. The publisher of Lyric Poetry and Poetics, she is the organizer of the Changwon KC International Literary Prize and the KS World Poetry Festival. Her work has been translated into many languages.

 Darcy Paquet is a film critic and translator who has been living in South Korea since 1997. He has translated the subtitles for over 150 Korean films including Parasite (2019). The author of New Korean Cinema: Breaking the Waves (Columbia University Press), he teaches at the Busan Asia Film School and has also taught a media translation workshop at the Literature Translation Institute of Korea.