Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Kim Hyesoon

THE SALT DRESS INSIDE ME

When sorrow is endured, salt gets excreted from your body
Your salty-salty expression
Your animal gaze
like a lonely island hammered by the sea  

Some days when there is a high-sea warning
seawater gushes in over the short eyelash fences
but the salt’s architecture doesn’t crumble
salt-flowers bloom from my fingertips like stinging sobs

Salt, turns my fallen shadow into powder and scatters it under the streetlamps
Salt, persists in me like the sea’s architecture

Salt, we embrace tightly and try
to capture the sea in each other

The salt pond is at work as soon as I’m awake
I listen to the rising sea architecture

I am wearing the salt dress
inside me

DE ZOUTEN JURK IN MIJZELF

lijd je verdriet dan komt er zout vrij uit je lichaam
je gelaatsuitdrukking wel zo doorzout dat je er kippenvel van krijgt
je dierlijke blik
als een levenslang hevig door de zee gebeukt eenzaam eiland

op dagen van stormwaarschuwing dat zeewater
binnendrong tussen de lage hekken van jouw wimpers door
stortte het zouten bouwsel niet ineen
zouten bloemen ontsproten als schrijnende weeklachten aan vingertoppen

zout, verpulverde mijn gevallen schaduw verstrooide hem onder straatlantaarns
zout, bouwsel van de zee die constant door mijn lichaam heen beweegt

zout, wij omarmden elkaar trachtten
in elkaars lijven de zee te vangen

vandaag zette bij het wakker worden de zoutcaverne de deur open
ik luister sinds vanochtend naar het rijzende bouwsel van de zee

ik droeg hem in mijn lichaam
een zouten jurk
met als naam
weid
se o
ce
aan

내 안의 소금 원피스

슬픔을 참으면 몸에서 소금이 난다
소름끼칠 정도로 짜디짠 당신의 표정
일평생 바다의 격렬한 타격에 강타당한 외로운 섬
같은 짐승의 눈빛

짧은 속눈썹 울타리 사이
파랑주의보 높아 바닷물 들이치는 날도 있었지만
소금의 건축이 허물어지지는 않았다
따가운 흐느낌처럼 손끝에서 피던 소금꽃

소금, 내 고꾸라진 그림자를 가루내어 가로등 아래 뿌렸다
소금, 내 몸속에서 유전하는 바다의 건축

소금, 우리는 부둥켜안고 서로의
몸속에서 바다를 채집하려 했다

오늘은 일어나자마자 염전이 문을 열었다
나는 아침부터 바다의 건축이 올라오는 소리 듣는다

나는 몸속에 입었다
소금 원피스 한 벌
그 이름



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THE SALT DRESS INSIDE ME

When sorrow is endured, salt gets excreted from your body
Your salty-salty expression
Your animal gaze
like a lonely island hammered by the sea  

Some days when there is a high-sea warning
seawater gushes in over the short eyelash fences
but the salt’s architecture doesn’t crumble
salt-flowers bloom from my fingertips like stinging sobs

Salt, turns my fallen shadow into powder and scatters it under the streetlamps
Salt, persists in me like the sea’s architecture

Salt, we embrace tightly and try
to capture the sea in each other

The salt pond is at work as soon as I’m awake
I listen to the rising sea architecture

I am wearing the salt dress
inside me

THE SALT DRESS INSIDE ME

When sorrow is endured, salt gets excreted from your body
Your salty-salty expression
Your animal gaze
like a lonely island hammered by the sea  

Some days when there is a high-sea warning
seawater gushes in over the short eyelash fences
but the salt’s architecture doesn’t crumble
salt-flowers bloom from my fingertips like stinging sobs

Salt, turns my fallen shadow into powder and scatters it under the streetlamps
Salt, persists in me like the sea’s architecture

Salt, we embrace tightly and try
to capture the sea in each other

The salt pond is at work as soon as I’m awake
I listen to the rising sea architecture

I am wearing the salt dress
inside me

Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Ludo Pieters Gastschrijver Fonds
Lira fonds
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère