Korean Short Stories
Choi Jeongrye Intent on Forgetting the Body 온몸을 잊으려고 Translated by Wayne de Fremery
Information This work was previously published in New Writing from Korea . Please contact the LTI Korea Library. library@klti.or.kr
About Choi Jeongrye Choi's poems usually originate from a profound contemplation of time and memory. For Choi, the process of identifying her true and unknown self embedded in the fragments of time and memory is a tool for understanding others and the world at large. What ultimately emerges from her exploration of fragmented memories and chaos of time is the sense of emptiness and loneliness that forms the very core of existence. A product of the poet’s ceaseless effort to pioneer a new frontier in her spiritual existence by unraveling the tangled relationship between memory and present existence, Choi’s poetic language is simple but intense, boldly rejecting sentimentalism as well as conventionalism. Plain words used in everyday conversations become unfamiliar all of a sudden, creating moments of fresh insight that reveal sorrow and pain of living. Everyday experiences entwine with fragments of forgotten memory to reveal the emptiness of life and destroy the idea of self as a solid, clearly defined being. Despite such dark subject matters, however, Choi’s language remains dynamic and full of life. LTI Korea eLibrary: http://library.klti.or.kr/node/391
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Intent on Forgetting the Body Opium poppies swayed in the turtle's eyes, Nakhwa Crag* commanded three thousand palace women at its side. The cat beneath the car tire, the cancer cell beneath the rib, live mewing, mewing. When, across from the hospital, far away, trains cross the Han River bridge, when they creep, creep across like green cabbage caterpillars, the snowstorm in the mustard seed, the distant hills in the cuckoos' cries, intent on forgetting the body, intent on forgetting the smell of the world, drift, drift, under the eyelids, into the daydream, under the cliff and the cherry blossom. Copyright 2008 Literature Translation Institute of Korea
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