Korean Short Stories
Lee Moon-jae Hand Seeks Hand 손은 손을 찾는다 Translated by Kevin O'Rourke
Information This work was previously published in New Writing from Korea . Please contact the LTI Korea Library. library@klti.or.kr
Hand Seeks Hand The function of a hand is to seek another hand. Heart accedes to heart. When me being me is unbearably strident, and me not being you is unbearably strident; and I spend the day in bed exhausted by the effort, look! And when the here and now seems like life's endgame and it seems like I am about to leave me, look for the hands. Left always seeks right; two hands seek a third. Hands are always alone; an empty hand is heaviest. I could barely raise myself to drink a drop of water. That's when I knew there's a tiny measure of poisonous indebtedness in thankfulness. 'Thank you' cannot exist on its own; thank you always implies indebtedness. Yesterday evening you were thankful;
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this morning I am indebted. The role of the hand ultimately is to seek another hand. The right hand seeks the left. Hands join before the breast because empty hands are so heavy, because indebtedness is so heavy. Copyright 2008 Literature Translation Institute of Korea
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