In his poetry collection, Flatfish, Moon Tae-jun offers an aesthetic that emphasizes the author’s exploration of the inner self. At times sparse and allusive, his poems use blank space and other stylistic considerations to convey a voice and thought that ranges from the contemplative to the surreal and absurd. Moon’s poems suggest Buddhist ideologies, natural images, and Korean temples, as the collection explores individual experiences within the context of a search for understanding a greater whole.
While Korea is certainly the setting of these poems, the works remain largely free of cultural-specific imagery and are, instead, naturalistic or universal. This first bilingual edition is a critical resource for students, poets, translators, and general readers alike.
Contents
Foreword: Slow, quiet, and flat: Moon Tae-jun’s anti-speed lyric by Jae Won Edward Chung
Translator’s Note
Words from the Poet
Part I
Longing
Water Lily
Floor
Someone Cries and Goes
Back like a Rascal
Old Mother
Horizontal
The Outside
Destitution
Destitution 2
Bugs, Poems, & Co.
Frost
One Evening
Sack
Fading
About that Time
The Stone’s Stomach
Part II
Path
Flatfish
Flatfish 2
Flatfish 3
Nursing Dog
Stars Sprout in the Winter Sky
School
Spread, Disease, Spread!
Oh My God!
Looking at SmallMums
Singing of the Tree Standing Dead
What to do, What to do
Metaphor of the Vine
Thicket
One Sad Spring
The Bottom
Part III
The Smell of Rice I Miss
Dream
Mysterious Flower Vase
The Noodle Shop with a Wooden Deck
Allegory of the Day Moon
The Marking Does Not Last Long
The Gingko Tree Behind Unmun Temple
Surprised by the Color
The Flower Blooms
I Walk A Long While
One Meadow Bunting
At the Sound of Mountain Rain
Empty Chair
Reservoir
The Crow and the Dog
There is No Cypress
In October
When I Turn Away
Part IV
The Wild Goose Laughs
Small Bird
The Promise of an Empty House
Ah, Twenty-Four Days
Oh, Thorn Lantern!
Like My Mother’s Family Home, Visited Again
The One Cicada into the Persimmon Tree
A Day, Here, like the Autumn River
Another Door Outside the Door
Birthing of the Plum Blossom
Jade Cicada
Wooden Block
Winter Night
Molding Clay
Go into the Ksana
The Wind, To Me
Original Korean Text:
제1부
思慕
수련
마루
누가 울고 간다
나는 돌아가 惡童처럼
老母
水平
바깥
극빈
극빈 2
벌레詩社
서리
어느 저녁에
자루
묽다
그맘때에는
돌의 배
제2부
길
가재미
가재미2
가재미3
젖 물리는 개
冬天에 별 돋고
떼
번져라 번져라 病이여
오오 이런!
小菊을 두고
강대나무를 노래함
어떡하나요, 어떡하나요
넝쿨의 비유
덤불
슬픈 샘이 하나 있다
바닥
제3부
그리운 밥 냄새
꿈
이상한 花甁
평상이 있는 국숫집
낮달의 비유
무늬는 오래 지닐 것이 못 되어요
운문사 뒤뜰 은행나무
빛깔에 놀라다
꽃이 핀다
나는 오래 걷는다
한 마리 멧새
산비 소리에
빈 의자
저수지
까마귀와 개
측백나무가 없다
시월에
내가 돌아설 때
제4부
기러기가 웃는다
작은 새
빈집의 약속
아, 24일
오, 가시등불!
언젠가 다시 가본 나의 외갓집 같은
감나무 속으로 매미 한 마리가
어느 날 내가 이곳에서 가을강처럼
門 바깥에 또 門이
매화나무의 解産
옥매미
木鐸
겨울밤
흙을 빚다
찰라 속으로 들어가다
바람이 나에게
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
An emerging voice in South Korean literature, MOON TAE-JUN has published a number of poetry collections in Korean (Crowded Backyard, Barefeet, A Shadow’s Development, and more). In poems that range from short, broken lines to longer prose-like forms, Moon Tae-jun evokes a sense of longing, as if searching for moments in the past that help inform the present.
BRANDON JOSEPH PARK is a lecturer in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at Rutgers University - New Brunswick, and in the Writing Program at Rutgers University - Newark. He is the co-translator of You Call That Music?!: Korean Popular Music Through the Generations.
