For this week’s Translation Tuesday, we present a selection of poems by Shin Kyeong-nim, translated from the Korean by Shane Ingan. In “For fallen things,” the speaker reflects on a life spent with the downtrodden, where “the shattered of dreams of fallen things” remain unredeemed. Accepting the bleakness of such a life brings a contentment that grand narratives could never give them. Meanwhile, “Lucky dream” follows a pig farmer who dreams of living as a pig herself. Though her porcine lifestyle would allow her new freedoms, she’s overwhelmed by the reality of the random violence that all dehumanized beings are vulnerable to. Both poems are suffused with quiet dignity as well as an acerbic undertone, which naturally intermingle among meditations on power, fate, and the unseen costs of collective indifference.
For fallen things
Somehow or other, I made my home in the shadows.
I did not take the side of the victorious wrestler,
But stood instead with the defeated, my fist in the air.
I skipped that rally where the multitudes gathered,
And listened instead to the man in the tattered suit
Surrounded by outcasts and orphans.
And so I have always been a bit melancholy, a bit mournful,
But I never thought of myself as unfortunate.
All that time I was happy.
It was the way people lived.
Never once did I believe that the shattered dreams of fallen things
Would be pieced back together by some benevolent hand.
Lucky dream
In Pyeongtak, Ms. Han Hyoseon, a pig farmer,
Dreamed on occasion
That she herself had become a pig.
No matter how faithful she was,
No matter how hardworking,
No matter how honest or kind—
Not a soul in the world would know it.
No matter how she swindled, no matter she lied,
No matter how much she cheated or stole—
It made no difference to anyone.
If a human shows any interest at all in pigs,
It’s to snatch one up at random for slaughter.
Ms. Han Hyoseon began to wonder, then,
Whether there might be people out there
Who die in this way, and if so, who?
Soon she began to dream that she was that someone
Snatched out of the crowd at random
To be slaughtered and eaten like a pig.
How handsome are the leaders of this country.
Translated from the Korean by Shane Ingan
Shin Kyeong-nim (1936-2024) is Korea’s foremost poet of the working and rural classes. Born in Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea, he traveled extensively throughout Korea during his lifetime, and the towns, villages, landscapes, and people he encountered on these trips feature prominently in his work. Shin’s debut book of poetry Nongmu (농무, Farmer’s Dance) won the Manhae Literature Prize in 1973, propelling him to national literary prominence. In 1980, he was briefly jailed by the Chun Doo-hwan dictatorship for alleged involvement in a rebellion plot. Shin is perhaps best known in Korea for his 1988 collection Poor Love Song, the title poem of which has been widely anthologized in elementary, middle, and high school textbooks. He died in May of last year at the age of 89.
Shane Ingan is a poet from Indiana. He currently lives and works in Detroit, Michigan. In 2024, he and co-translator Jeongju Lee received the commendation award in the Korea Times’ Modern 55th Annual Korean Literature Translation Awards for their translations from the later poems of Shin Kyeong-nim. Currently, they are working on a translation of Shin’s 1991 collection, Gil (길, The Path).
*****
Read more from the Asymptote blog:
- Translation Tuesday: Two Poems from the Middle Korean
- Translation Tuesday : “Little Sow” by Yi Hyosŏk
- Translation Tuesday: Two Poems by Cho Ji Hoon