Candlelight Letter (poet: Gim Gwangryeol)
You, who cannot come out to the candlelight square to light a candle—
What other blue-roof-tiled house are you now trying to build
On the sand of your blue-roof-tiled house?
Drip, drip… Can you hear the wax melt and drip in the square?
Still hugging a cold, burnt-down lamp[1],
Are you by any chance dreaming the brilliant dream of a caterpillar even now?[2]
While haggard “dogs and pigs” are lighting the candles
And trying to push away this harsh winter, in order to be livestock no more,
Perhaps you’re crouching in your place
In order to become livestock yourself this time?
To bend truth to mold lies—
Was it so sweet and fun for you? Is it still fun?
Wherever your hand touched, everywhere,
There were messy stains of dirt, hurt, shipwrecks, and scars.
Please stop lighting your lamp. Never again, please.
Not everyone is worthy of lighting a lamp that will illuminate a country.
Like clothes protecting our naked flesh,
A lamp should be lit for our beautiful and shiny present and future.
Now, when I’d rather like to become crazy because I am grateful to you
For forcing me to write you a candlelight letter that I never wanted to write,
For forcing me to write this reluctantly,
Who are you who took the shape of a brilliant human form?
Which planet are you from, you who make it impossible for the square to go to sleep until the very end?
[1] Former President Park Geun-hye supported a book project that referred to her father as “the lamp of the East.”
[2] Former President Park Geun-hye emphasized in the Dec. 23, 2015 cabinet meeting that anything would be possible if they worked hard like a caterpillar tearing off its cocoon to become a butterfly.