Translated from the Korean by Kim Kooseul and Darcy Paquet
Narrated by Bill Wolak
South Korea
The stooped silhouette
Of the old man pulling his dog
The horizon under his knees
Courteous as a faithful servant
Attending his master of his past life
In the afterlife the dog will become the master
The old man a dog;
They will be living a life of the future
Pulling each other’s silhouettes
After the wave from the far sea
Has sent back the last remnants of darkness
Slapping its buttocks at the coastline
The children playing with the dog on the sand
Where the dawn seagulls honk for food
Will also roll the wheel of life
And one day again at sunset
Become old men pulling the dark sun
With their stooped silhouettes,
The horizon under their knees
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.
