An Gyeong-sin
There was a woman wafting the fragrance of Korean melons,
A woman who makes us pay silent tribute every summer to the yellow Korean melon.
It is because of her, who crawled in the fields of Korean melons,
That these yellow melons look like bombs.
So sorrowful because she had lost her nation, she willingly chose to be called
A woman bomber, ignoring even her pregnant condition.
She was pregnant with a will to recover her country, a twin of the baby in her belly.
While she was making eyes and a face,
Fingers and toes,
A baby with a thumping heart,
Unable to listen to Brahms’ Violin Sonata No. 3,
Unable to set the table with foods containing five nutrients,
Unable to see Vincent van Gogh’s “Terrasse du café le soir,”
She had to give her baby a prenatal education through her bomb-throwing posture.
One night she had to hide in a field of Korean melons.
With a pounding heart excited about her mission.
Forgetting even the sweet fragrance of Korean melons, she crawled on her swollen belly.
As the field was so fragrant
Enough to make a pregnant woman faint overnight,
As a fragrant pregnant woman could not be suspected,
She could dare to attempt the plan.
Although the bomb soaked in rain misfired,
Her will for Korean independence spread throughout the world, louder than the roar of an explosion.
As she was arrested with her baby in her arms,
After giving birth to it like to a calf,
Her bloody discharge of motherly love followed her footsteps,
Like bloody writing of the will for national independence, while she was escorted by the police.
During her 10-year imprisonment,
A reduced sentence, from capital punishment,
She was separated from her newborn,
As well as her surprised mother, who passed away during her incarceration.
Her eight-year-old child, with whom she managed to reunite after she had been paroled,
Was disabled and could not see.
On this land, where her wailing resounded for a long time,
Like her dream of giving the gift of an independent country to her child,
Piles of Korean melons from that summer lie, with the safety catches of fragrance, on the streets,
And pregnant women in this land enjoy peaceful summers, while giving prenatal education through the fragrance of Korean melons.
안경신
여름만 되면 노란 참외 앞에서 묵념하게 하는
참외 향기 나는 한 여인이 있었다
노란 참외가 폭탄으로 보이는 것도
그 밭에서 기어 본 그 여인 때문이다
나라 잃은 설움 때문에 임산부라는 것도 잊은 채
기꺼이 여자 폭탄범으로 불렸다
나라를 찾는 의지도 쌍둥이처럼 한 몸 가득 잉태했다
눈을 만들고 얼굴을 만들고
손가락을 만들고 발가락을 만들고
심장이 파닥파닥 뛰는 아기를 만들어 갈 때
브람스 바이올린 소나타 3번을 듣지도 못하고
5대 영양소를 따져가며 밥상을 차리지도 못하고
빈센트 반 고흐의‘ 밤의 카페테라스’도 감상하지 못하고
투탄(投彈) 자세로만 태교해야 했던 여인이었다
참외밭에서 하룻밤을 피해야 했던 그 어떤 날
달달한 참외 향기도 잊고 폭탄 던질 거사로만 두근거려서
부푼 배로도 참외밭을 포복했다
참외 폭탄이 밤새 임산부를 혼절시킬 만큼
들판은 향기로워서
향기 밴 임부는 도저히 의심도 받지 않아서
과감히 거사로 뛰어들 수 있었다
빗물 젖은 폭탄은 불발로 그쳤지만
독립 의지가 폭발보다 더 강한 굉음으로 세계에 퍼졌다
송아지 낳듯 아이를 낳고
갓 태어난 아기를 품에 안고 체포되었기에
애틋한 모성으로 뚝뚝 떨어지는 하혈이
독립의지의 혈서처럼 호송 발자국을 따라갔다
사형이라는 극형을 받았다가
10년으로 확정된 징역의 세월 동안
태어난 지 12일 된 아기와 헤어졌고
놀란 친정어머니도 세상을 뜨셨다
옥중 세월 보내고 어렵게 찾게 된 여덟 살 아이는
앞을 영영 보지 못하는 장애인이었다
그녀의 통곡소리가 오래 울렸던 이 땅
독립된 나라를 아이에게 선물하겠다던 그녀의 꿈처럼
그 여름 참외는 향기의 안전핀으로 이 거리에 평화롭게 쌓여 있고
이 땅의 임부들은 참외향기태교라는 그윽한 여름을 나누고 있다
Translated by Seung-Hee Jeon (literary critic and translator, editor of Asia: A Magazine of Asian Literature)
