A Covered Well

By Lee Hyang Ji

Translated by Rodney E. Tyson & Hong Eun-Taek

Poem Gate. June 5, 2001.


My pain is over there
A sky blue wooden lid presses on it

Wearing high heels covering my insteps and dark blue slacks
I try to open the pain below the lid

Between
The pain going near and the pain coming near
The footsteps
That I hear

Between
The force pressing down and the force lifting up
Stench and darkness
Flow out

The well below the lid was rotting
My pain below the lid
I put it exactly in the proper place where I live after death
And go up the stone steps following the scent of kaoliang flowers


Poem Gate | Curriculum Vitae