Big, Baggy Pants
When I was younger,
My dream was simple.
I wanted pants that fit me.
This dream was never to be.
I had to wear my dad’s hand-me-downs pants
Altered to make them smaller.
Even when I got new pants from the mall,
I could not buy a pair that fit.
Mother used to say,
“You are young, and your body is changing every day.”
“You will outgrow these pants very soon,
They will be useless.”
She always bought me big, baggy pants.
Big, baggy pants oppressed me.
When I put them on
I was confused, as if the pants had put me on
My small weak body, still as yet un-grown,
suffered from the burden of the pants.
My soul and my life slipped out from the space
between my body and pants
I waddled like a goat,
Tossed around inside the pants
Like gum in the mouth of a whore.
I was made ridiculous and dragged around by my pants.
“These pants are so old fashioned ” I thought.
But I did not protest aloud against my big, baggy pants.
Big, baggy pants, oh, contemptible life.
The pants break my dreams and smile wickedly all the while.
“Live this way. Live that way,” my pants command, meddling in my life.
So as not to be dragged into this life
I should have long ago protested against the tyranny of the pants.
I should have long ago torn them off
Or submitted uncomplainingly to their dictatorship.
Big, baggy pants, oh, oppressive pants.
Inside the ill-fitting pants,
My legs shivered uncomfortably.
Big, baggy pants dominate me, hanging over me like a dark shadow,
Ceaselessly shaking my life, like a dog with a rat
As I remain neither submissive nor untamed.
시인 장석주 by Poet, Chang, SeokJoo
The poet, Seok-Ju Chang, was born in Non-San, Chung-Cheong-Nam-Do, South Korea, in January 8, 1955. His first published
work was “Midnight” that he received new and emerging poet award from Monthly Literature in 1975. In 1979, he awarded his poem, “Fly, Gloomy Dream” inChosun Il-Bo, Spring Literature and Dong-A-Il-Bo, Spring Literature, Critique, “Existence and Unrealism”.
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Translated by Clara Soonhee Kwon-Tatum, Ph.D and Matthew Lewis, MA
