Phantom Pain Wings

by Kim Hyesoon, Don Mee Choi (Translator)

Winged ventriloquy―a powerful new poetry collection channeling the language of birds by South Korea’s most innovative contemporary writer An iconic figure in the emergence of feminist poetry in South Korea and now internationally renowned, Kim Hyesoon pushes the poetic envelope into the farthest reaches of the lyric universe. In her new collection, Kim depicts the memory of war trauma and the collective grief of parting through what she calls an “I-do-bird-sequence,” where “Bird-human is the ‘I.’” Her remarkable essay “Bird Rider” “I came to write Phantom Pain Wings after Daddy passed away. I called out for birds endlessly. I wanted to become a translator of bird language. Bird language that flies to places I’ve never been.” What unfolds is an epic sequence of bird ventriloquy exploring the relentless physical and existential struggles against power and gendered violence in “the eternal void of grief” (Victoria Chang, The New York Times Magazine ). Through intensely rhythmic lines marked by visual puns and words that crash together and then fly away as one, Kim mixes traditional folklore and mythology with contemporary psychodramatic realities as she taps into a cremation ceremony, the legacies of Rimbaud and Yi Sang, a film by Agnes Varda, Francis Bacon’s portrait of Pope Innocent X, cyclones, a princess trapped in a hospital, and more. A simultaneity of voices and identities rises and falls, existing and exiting on their delayed wings of pain.

Genres: Poetry, Feminism, Essays, Mental Health, Aapi

208 pages, Paperback

Published May 2, 2023

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

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

rating translated poetry is tough because i think a lot can get lost in translation, but it's not the translator's fault. it's me and my pea-sized brain's fault for not really understanding a lot of these poems. lemme just learn Korean real quick. also i liked the essay at the end and helped understand where the poetry stemmed from

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll figure out how to rate this later, but this was such a tough collection of poems to get through. Really have to hand it to Choi for doing everything she can to remain faithful to the original while still trying to make it make sense to an audience reading in English.

[Zee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poetry book is incredible.

Did I know what was going on in basically any given poem? Absolutely not.

But the writing was gorgeous. When I could break through the meaning, I was completely gutted. And this has some of the most poignant lines I'd ever read.

Wow. Just, yeah. Wow. More, please.

[Alexander Pyles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much like Hyesoon's title that prefigures the poem inside, these are breathlessly ethereal poems that grasp the reader roughly. Images that are violent and beautiful slide in and out of the mind as each verse soars higher and higher--to only plummet.

[Donald Armfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hyesoon explains in her essay that poetry is a self awareness to how we depict our traumas, grief and parting with our loved ones when they pass. And now the struggle to maintain a tranquility and to fly away as one with so much pain inside.
If you believe in “bird ventriloquist” through the loss of our loved ones then let your wings soar with this collection clasped under your beak.

Favorites:
Phantom Pain Wings
Floor Is Not a Floor
10 Centimeters
Korean Zen
Again, I Need To Ask Poor Yi Sang
More Tender Heart
Pre-Ghost

[kc · Rating 4 out of 5]

i found this book in a little free library and had no expectations but it’s…. maybe now one of my favorite poetry collections?? if i thought too hard about any of the words i’d have no idea what was going on, but if i let them wash over me in a sort of dream logic, i’d be like… oh this is exactly what grief feels like. so weird so wonderful so its own. i wish i could read these poems in their original language!

[Taleen Sample · Rating 2 out of 5]

i unfortunately really did not like this at all

[robbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection goes through a lot & it can be easy to get lost between the pages, but I found it worth my time. Hyesoon's fascination with birds becomes this spiritual link between her and her late parents, along with the world as she understands it, all in mourning. The whole book is a kind of divination to me. Hyesoon describes poetry as a sort of channelling, a way to make room within herself for something else to enter, which makes sense considering where she was emotionally as she wrote this. It's the kind of collection I'll pick up several times only to still find new things within it.

The translator's notes are tucked quietly at the end of the book, but are just as thoughtful and compelling to read as the collection itself. Don Mee Choi's diary expands on her correspondence with Hyesoon, along with personal reflections as she translates the book in the middle of the pandemic. Choi is a poet in her own right, and her notes do a lot to contextualize Hyesoon's poetry both culturally and linguistically (her wordplay naturally makes the most sense in Korean). Not to be skipped over!

[Connie]

Told in four titled sections that culminate in an essay by Hyesoon, these poems are funny, surreal, and teem with longing. Bird enthusiasts especially, reach for this reflection on making, mourning, sound, and war. An endnotes fanatic, I deeply appreciated the “Translator’s Diary,” drawing hearts in the margins my entire way through. Insights into the process of translating poetry from Korean to English, the weather and bird reports, and dreams and nightmares fascinated me.

from “Recent Poetry Releases to Add to Your Collections in Anticipation of The Sealey Challenge” via BOOK RIOT: https://bookriot.com/new-poetry-2023/

[Tay L · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first started reading this, it felt like I was reading the internal process of someone going through a psychotic episode, and I loved it. I recommend first reading the essay in the back to have some context for the poems. I also recommend referencing the translator’s diary as you read through the poems. It’s helpful to hear the translation process and what may have been lost or changed in translation. The poems are powerful and do not shy away from tough topics of grief and suffering. I appreciate the use of metaphors and the use of body horror to mirror the emotional pain and yuckiness of challenging social emotional experiences.

[L Baldwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for school so it was compulsory for me but I want to say the one star knocked off is just for my own ignorance of Korean history, language, poetics and culture.
The way into this book was difficult for me. There didn’t seem to be anywhere to mentally latch for maybe the first entire half of the book. Eventually I felt convinced by the poet’s voice, that she knew something I didn’t know, and I could be carried along by the strength there alone.
The poet’s essay and translator’s notes at the end were revelatory.
I need to learn more about the world.

[Honor Dearlove · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just didn’t connect with this at all/maybe this was just a collection better understood in its original language idk translated poetry can be tough. I really appreciated the translators notes at the end though. I found the overuse of the word mommy kinda off putting and I really just don’t like bird imagery so perhaps this is just not my vibe.

[Plainqoma]

not in a headspace for poetry i guess. this one a bit weird, heavy with symbolisms especially with animals. but pretty relatable with the last part and reading the translator notes really helped a lot.

[Ash Sandstrom]

Wish I had read the translator's notes/diary before and after, it would have helped with understanding. I liked this, but think a lot got lost in translation (footnotes or the translator's diary being at the beginning would have helped).

[Cody Stetzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary. Exemplary.

[Julie Barquero · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think this is bad. It's just not "my kind" of poetry.
What I enjoyed the most was the final essay.

[Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poems that are both Sylvia Plath AND Ted Hughes in sensibility but uniquely their own at the same time. Compelling.

[Queer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this poetry in translation. Read more poetry in translation. Read more poetry.

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[Tabularii Machinum · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bird paranoia of birding rhythms and farewells.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Translation felt off. Probably better in original language.

[jess liu · Rating 4 out of 5]

despair invents ventriloquy

[Peacefulbookery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hyesoon's writing isn't comforting - she tests the limits of literature to express human vulnerability. Her works are perceptive and powerful because of her unsentimental approach.

[Emily & daughter]

need a do-over of this one in Korean…

[Valeria Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ll admit I don’t think I was ready for some of these poems, but I can acknowledge Kim Hyesoon’s incredible mind and writing. Her poetry feels so raw and unique to me, and I want to understand her.

[michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the most part I didn’t find this as confusing as many of the other reviewers here seemed to—but I am also Korean and Korean is technically my first language so I guess I have more context for this sort of thing. I was a little lost towards the end, but I didn’t find that to impede my enjoyment of the text at all. Translating this seems like it was crazy. The original text seems like it was crazy. I thought it was wonderful. Made me want to brush up on my Korean specifically so I could read this in the original text.

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

I literally didn't understand 98% of this.

[Hannah Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this but wish it was a tiny bit more clear stylistically