Korean Short Stories
Hwang In Suk Above the Roofs 지붕 위에서 Translated by Song Jaepyeong
Information This work was previously published in New Writing from Korea . Please contact the LTI Korea Library. library@klti.or.kr
Above the Roofs I look over tiled roofs, slate roofs, concrete roofs, canvas-covered roofs, waves of roofs, hills and plains. I look over every corner, even the crevasses and caves, folds and gaps that the roofs embrace. Wow-if these roofs unfolded, how many times would they wrap around the earth? While imagining this, a cat enjoying sun bathing, outstretched on a silvery tent, lifts up its head to look around as though feeling a gloomy foreboding, and fixes its gaze upon me. It appears to be in a bad mood. Don't worry, my body feels too heavy to share your space. Cats are users of empty air spaces. The energy circulating inside their bodies sends them up and up and leads them to discover this vast territory. Cats, addicts of adrenaline, find thrill in tilted roofs, wobbly ceilings, in other words, slantedness, and empty spaces between roofs. As if roofs give birth to cats, up and up the cats soar to the roofs. In this city where back alleys have disappeared, on the back alleys above the roofs, on these alleys above, so to speak, gently I place my breath.
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Copyright 2009 Literature Translation Institute of Korea
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