Picture: Namsook Han
Woman at a Seaport
A woman at a seaport
Wastes away day by day
At night, she lays down, bent double
At dawn, she gets up, bent double
The creaking in her bones when she bends
Spreads to her empty heart
Long ripples
Resounding in her joints
Seep trembling into other women’s empty minds
The chilling sound of waves
Passing through the gills of fresh-caught deep ocean fish
Fills the fish market on the hill
At the seaport fish market
The pale-faced woman is dried up by salt winds;
Even her smile has faded away
Her body is rolled up like a ball
But she carries on and endures
As she rolls along, pouring out her strength
The waves crying in her heart roll on
By Poet, Soonja Kwon, born in 1958, poetry 『A Thousand Tears』 etc.
Translatey Clara Soonhee Kwon-Tatum, Ph.D and Matthew Lewis, M.Ad b
