Looking Glass
Translation by Ethan Fenlon, a first year ETA in Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do
Since Narcissus, Western literature has dealt with the motif of the mirror with a tinge of distrust: mirrors distract, mirrors disturb, mirrors lie. However, in his 1938 poem “Looking Glass,” Yoon Kon-Kang probes a more terrible truth, and questions what would happen if the “I” in the mirror were to disappear completely. Taking after other Korean modernists like Yi Sang who explore the paradoxical nature of gazing on one’s own reflection, Yoon nonetheless blazes his own trail in this piece, reflecting (ha) on solitude and the self.
Looking Glass
Nobody’s coming,
no one is waiting
in a room like the sea—
While transfixed
by the face reflected
in a boundless looking glass,
someone may break in,
stealing it away
without leaving a trace…
Oh oh!
When the silence is deafening,
isn’t loneliness death?
면경(面鏡)
올 사람도 없고
기다릴 사람도 없는
바다속 같은 방 안―
테 없는 거울,
그속에 비친 얼굴을
뚫어지라 쏘아볼 때,
누가 자취도 없이 들어와서
저 거울마저 빼앗아간다면……
오오!
소리없음을 ‘정적(靜寂)’이라면
외로움은 한개 색다른 ‘주검’이냐?
