Translated by Chae-Pyong Song and Anne Rashid

Photography by Lee Sang-youp

The Hole by Kim Kyung-ju

I clean up the hole
The hole hatches an egg
Desiring a hole,
I have written a few books
The hole has no work today
Exhausted, the hole’s sympathy is at risk
Clearing away the hole, I ran down the stairs
The hole is the life of the inner room
Looking down at the hole is the time that pushes an object
The hole where a toilet should receive all from top to bottom
There are holes that ask the color
The hole’s surroundings are suspiciously drying up
The flowers that bloom away from the hole are heartbreaking
The hole with today’s efforts recognizes more distance than depth
The hole floats within the hole
Nowhere hurts in the hole
It appears only the hole hurts
Waves walk toward heaven bleeding profusely, shouting, “Hole, please save me!”
The hole floats up in the air
The life of the hole that floats in the air
Snowmen appear in a straight line
The hole
The city where the hole appears
The time when the hole is not read like the way Benjamin Péret’s poetry is not read
The time when people are afraid of the hole’s haunting has passed
The flower that blocks the hole dies early
The writing that pursues the hole with all its efforts
The writing that describes the hole
The writing that consumes the hole
I am injured by the hole 
I scoop up something from the hole
After leaving the hole, I can’t believe in the hole
The hole evolves, leaving the hole, because it no longer believes in it
If there is such a thing, my life has already been ruined
I look down at the eye in the hole
I follow it down with my eyes
Like a well, four directions
rise up after breaking the hole
Where do I live?

(Originally published in Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature and Culture, Volume 5 [2012])

Kim Kyung-Ju was born in Gwangju in 1976. He studied philosophy at Sogang University. His poetry collections include I am a Season that Doesn’t Exist in This World, The Strange Story, and Calming the Parallactic Eyes. He was awarded the Today’s Young Artist Award and the Kim Su-young Literature Award.