한 잔의 붉은 거울

by Kim Hyesoon, 김혜순

시집 『한 잔의 붉은 거울』의 놀랍고 신기한, 끔찍하도록 적나라하고 처절하게 아름다운 세계는 현실의 무자비한 삭제로부터 시작한다. 상상력에 의한 부분 부분의 뒤집기, 비틀기, 비교하기가 아닌 전반적인 무(無)에서부터 다시 시작하는 듯하다. 그러나 현실이 없다면 언어도 없고, 이 시집도 이 시집의 세계도 없는 것. 결국 이 시집의 세계는 현실을 비추는 거울로 기능한다. 현실을 그대로 비추는 평면거울이 아닌 수많은 프리즘으로 만들어진 만화경 같은 거울. 그리하여 이 시집을 통과하는 사람이나 사물은 온전한 하나의 유기체에서 낱낱이 분해되고 뒤섞여 완전히 새로운 개체로 다시 태어난다. 이 믹서 같은 시집이 만들어낸 새로운 종의 개체는 시인의 무의식과 우리의 다채로운 감각의 표정과 감정의 저 밑바닥에서 분출하는 언어가 만들어낸 것이다. 이 개체와 사랑에 빠질 것인가, 맛볼 것인가, 바라만 볼 것인가?

Genres: Poetry

172 pages, Paperback

First published May 7, 2004

About the author

Born in Ulijin, South Korea, Kim Hyesoon (1955-) received her PhD in Korean Literature from Konkuk University, and began as a poet in 1979 with the publication of Poet Smoking a Cigarette. She began to receive critical acclaim in the late 1990s and she attributes this to the strong wave of interest in poetry by woman poets; currently she is one of South Korea’s most important contemporary poets, and she now lives and teaches in Seoul. Her poetry aims to strive for a freedom from form, by experimenting with language focusing on the sensual - often female - body, in direct opposition to male-dominated lyrical poetry. ‘They are direct, deliberately grotesque, theatrical, unsettling, excessive, visceral and somatic. This is feminist surrealism loaded with shifting, playful linguistics that both defile and defy traditional roles for women.’

Having published more than ten poetry collections, a number of these have been translated into English recently: When the Plug Gets Unplugged (2005); Mommy Must be a Fountain of Feathers (2008); All the Garbage of the World, Unite! (2011); Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream (2014) and I’m O.K., I’m Pig (2014). Tinfish has also published a small chapbook of three essays entitled Princess Abandoned (2012).

Throughout her career she has gained nearly all of South Korea’s most prestigious literary awards, named after the country’s greatest poets, such as Kim Su-yông Literature Award (1997), the Sowol Poetry Literature Award (2000) and the Midang Literature Award (2006). She was also the first female to win the Daesan Literary Award in 2008.

Reviews

[Ryan Bollenbach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Working on full review. Preiminarily: another amazing addition to her English-translated oeuvre.

[Sarah Cavar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely stunning work from someone who has quickly become my favorite poet. I've never more enjoyed feeling like I've been chopped up, baked, devoured, and spit out.

[Cody Stetzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding work full with brilliant observations

[Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like however “cavalcade” could be different from “avalanche” or “monstrosity,” an onrush versus an oncoming that are both versus’ing the person being addressed. To be loved by the lover in Kim Hyesoon’s poetry is to suffer through the longest articulation of body presence and emotion in your life. Do you want darkness? Take darkness. Take a music that can remind you of darkness. Like open your dreams. Open your front door. Pull back the covers of your bed. You’ll find that your bed is a “bed” in a “room” that was detached from a night time setting. But which night was it?

Hyesoon’s poems have plans to send you a gift. Like her hands. Like one of her ears tied to one of your ears, and then, “fly away little butterfly.” Like that’s romance. The tingling of romance. The jitters that are as much inside your body as outside. In the poems, love is a troubling position to take. It’s like you’re giving something of yourself up to the loving person, and your body literally resides inside that person, and many of the poems struggle with getting the body back, feeling the limits of the body that’s been left to you, wondering if what stirs the body from looking out at nature is part of the body that still belongs to the body, or is it the natural longing for those body parts that were given away. Perhaps you can see the long stringy logic at play in Hyesoon’s book. Perhaps you can anticipate the spiky nature of Hyesoon’s “logic.”

Like if logic were a weather or a headache or a bird, at least it would be more sensible, or you’d understand what makes it so sensible. But logic is more difficult than that. It seems to be sublimated in the body so it’s just a personal storm. “Can you hear me calling?” Mike & the Mechanics sang in the 80s. It could be the accompaniment to many of the poems in Hyesoon’s book. Because there is something about the lover’s logic, or the poet’s logic trying to make sense of the lover, and it all sums together in an attempt to just get the someone’s attention.

[Justin Sant · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are refreshing fragments in each poem — wild metaphors that had me constructing them in my own head:

"only the lit windows are bright, like eyes that look inside themselves" —Scribbled Letter

"When I enter the gorge of dreams" —Something like a Poem

"I'll obliterate you like a gulp of water" —That Red Cloud

Though only about 8 of the poems came together for me, where I felt like I came away with a cogent morsel after leaving the basis of the poem and following Kim's wild emotions around. Most poems felt too loose, utilizing The Spread effect, deploying a flurry to evolve complexity/urgency.

She has a knack her for turning emotions into body parts, in some form of exchange/decision. Maybe too dependent on that device.

[Greg Bem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exploring Seoul and beyond, Kim Hyesoon's latest collection in English is relentless. It's assorted, gloriously-grotesque thought pieces provided by a masterful feminist surrealist. The body art here undeniable and follows the line between approachable and reproachable in tone and extremity.

[Rebecca Valley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a stunning book of poems. Strange and nightmarish and loving and not afraid of the body. I appreciated reading about the translation process, and the collaborative nature of the collection. I have already recommended this book to too many people to count.

[naviya · Rating 5 out of 5]

- erotic and sensual, in a kind of horrifying way!
- i loved reading about the process of translation

[Vee · Rating 4 out of 5]

do you have an interest or fascination of the color red, the moon, eggs, rain or the human body? if you do, I've got good news for you