Korean Short Stories
Ko Hyeong-ryeol The Riddle of the 'Can-'in Cancer ‘암癌’자 화두 Translated by Lee Hyeongjin
Information This work was previously published in New Writing from Korea . Please contact the LTI Korea Library. library@klti.or.kr
About Ko Hyeong-ryeol Ko is a poet of “peculiar” voice. Calm even as it discusses the history of Korean national division or the author's wish for Korean reunification, his poetic language carries the halting tone of a soliloquy muttered or a conversation initiated with difficulty. Though never exertive, Ko’s poetry exudes the strength of compassion and warmth grounded in the poet’s own perspective toward the world, which is not that of a distant observer but rather that of a close neighbor who meditates on things as though they are an immediate part of his life. As Ko has aged his work has become even more humble and pure in tone. Ko as often describes the world as full of sorrow and suffering, but his poetry also expresses life with compassion and understanding. LTI Korea eLibrary: http://library.klti.or.kr/node/11
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The Riddle of the 'Can-' in Cancer The Riddle of the 'Can-' in Cancer -At a Hospital in Seoul Today is the 100th day she has been lying sick. The fishing lines tugging at the neural networks inside her flesh, she transforms slowly into a bed. It's hot, a flower of massive pain blossoms. Only her small tongue is alive, as if her whole body has been slashed. Her body is as tiny as the tip of a cat's tongue. She spits out the pain of her death throes like contempt. Death is fighting to make her oblivious to fear. In a room painted by the deadly struggle that wrenches bone and flesh on the bed bullets explode and spears fly. The woman becomes a slave. A four-sided bone-bed supporting the pain that presses on bones like a piano keyboard that sounds when touched, she shouts her sticky pain. Battered body torn to shreds, spit out your cursed body as you die. On the 101st day, loathsome as a nightmare, with each bone-splitting word a high-rise crane lifts up the woman's bones, lightly lifts the iron rods into the air.
Copyright 2008 Literature Translation Institute of Korea
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