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 […]

Through Mud and Myth

By Johanna Alexander, a second year ETA in Gumi, Gyeongsangbuk-do The importance of history, they say, is that if we know the mistakes of those who came before us, we can avoid repeating them in the future. I’ll grant them this: it’s good advice if you’re like the people in those histories. The kind of […]

Series from the Hwasil, a Room of Flowers and Magic

By Julia Wargo, a second year ETA in Gumi, Gyeongsangbuk-do I Darker, lighter, darker. These are the only words I hear for hours at a time, and I repeat them over and over again to myself. There’s something deeply meditative about that repetition, and about ink wash painting. Ink: solid midnight, ground out of a stick […]