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Sunstroke

Author: 
Kim Hyesoon

Get submerged

Get submerged in the blazing sun

Get submerged in the rippling blazing sun

Hear something as I get submerged in the rippling blazing

   sun

Hear something then don’t hear then hear again as I get

   submerged in the rippling blazing sun

It’s like the voice of someone confessing while shaking softly

   boiling sand

It’s the voice I have wanted to hear for a thousand years

Hear something then don’t hear then hear again then don’t

   again as I get submerged in the rippling blazing sun

Lie down

Lie down on the floor of the blazing sun

Lie down on the cold floor of the blazing sun

It is so hot that the cold floor of the blazing sun sweats

The sweat of the cold floor of the blazing sun is like a knife

   blade

Among the knife-like drops of sweat from the cold floor of

   the blazing sun the tiny knives that are barely visible beat

   against my ears

The sound of knocking on the eardrums doesn’t tear the

   eardrums that are about to tear

The faraway beating sound comes from faraway, faraway like

   an echo

Let me in, let me in, let me in the sound is so faint that it

   pleads with its needle-like hands

As eyes open a flock of crows darts out from my ears their

   beaks poke at my pupils

From Modern Poetry in Translation, 2012

Translated by Mee Choi Don