Korean Short Stories
Hwang Gyu-Gwan Screeching 쇳소리 Translated by An Seonjae
Information This work was previously published in New Writing from Korea . Please contact the LTI Korea Library. library@klti.or.kr
Screeching A screeching sound comes out of my wife. Because of poverty, to overcome it she has to shift her body but it collides with the crowd of children. Her voice gets scratched by my inability until it bursts out. It is the sound of a red soul turning black, although in truth she got that from me. Is life nothing but endless self-torment? Being poor, I do not know how to become a saint. All through winter the language of snowflakes filled the air but to the end I could not read it. I dream not of having my bank loans cancelled but of perfecting this abjectness to a greater state of abjection, that is the revolution I struggle with alone. Now, I will give up the dream of living idly that abolishes me. If I still have a mote of power to waft into the wind, I will return and start again upon that path like the eye of a needle where abolition soon becomes creationthat is what I thought after I heard a screeching sound from my wife, my wife who quarrels instead of me. Copyright 2009 Literature Translation Institute of Korea
1