E=MC2
As I leaf through my old pocketbook, my neck bends like refracted light.
Einstein’s formula, E=MC2—
To me, it is the greatest poem ever written!
No other has shown so succinctly
That through the imagination of light
Our reality can be transformed into revolutionary energy.
Our reality is enormous energy
That blasts the world when it meets light.
The speed limit of light is 300,000 kilometers per second,
Which is, ironically, also the speed limit in the universe.
Then humanity’s infinite imagination
Might fly higher than the birds, but
Would it be possible for it to fly faster than the speed of light?
Lee, San-ha 1987, when he was active in the propaganda of Democratization Movement Youth Union, Lee San-ha announced the epic poem, which reveals the genocide and truth of ‘Jeju 4 · 3
Translated by 전승희 Seung-Hee Jeon
(literary critic and translator, editor of Asia: A Magazine of Asian Literature)
