Sindorim Station
Over the black and dark subway tracks
A fat rat is taking a stroll.
People spit and throw
Blackish red phlegm
And a lit cigarette butt at it.
The rat is undisturbed.
Five hundred meters away, a freight train
Is puffing and approaching fast.
The rat is undisturbed.
Leisurely going across the tracks and continuing on its way,
It lives better in Seoul
Than I do.
A pack of rats is climbing into the train.
.
.
Lee Jae-mu : born in 1958, professor, poetry [ I Surrender to Sadness ] etc
.
Translated by Seung-Hee Jeon
(literary critic and translator, editor of Asia: A Magazine of Asian Literature)
