“As a sick kid, I always looked out the window. The objects of my observation were the sun, the seasons, the wind, crazy people, and my grandfather's death. During my long period of observation, I felt that something like poems were filling up my body.” PeopleLongBodyKidsFeltSunCrazyObjectsWindPeriodsWindowSeasonsSickObservationGrandfatherFillingMy GrandfatherCrazy PeopleFilling UpSick Kids Author:Kim Hyesoon
“We carve on our body what society teaches us and continue this task, not knowing the identity they force us to have. This identity is carved on our faces and our skins. Not knowing our bodies have become "the paper made of human meat," we stuff our bodies and make them a theater where cultural symbols or suppressed symbols play.” HumansMadePlayBodyFacesForceStuffTeachKnowingIdentityPaperTasksSkinsTheaterSymbolsMeatNot Knowing Author:Kim Hyesoon
“I came to grotesque language in the patriarchal culture under the dictatorship. The body that was broken into pieces is a sick body. I put the disease of this world and my sick body together.” WorldBodyTogetherCultureLanguagePiecesThis WorldBrokenDiseaseSickDictatorshipGrotesque Author:Kim Hyesoon
“The body of poetry is nothing but energy, waves, rhythm.” BodyEnergyWaveRhythmPoetry Is Author:Kim Hyesoon
“We have certain rules for traditional lyric poetry in Korea. I twist my body, confused by what to say and how to act, facing these rules. Confronting traditional lyricism, I speak with a bare body without the tattoos of culture on it.” BodyCertainCultureSpeakTraditionalConfusedTattooTwistsKoreaConfrontingLyric Poetry Author:Kim Hyesoon
“The rhythm of my body is the same as my mother tongue. It is in this rhythm where I find sanctity, that I can return to my mother who is everywhere in the universe.” I CanBodyMotherUniverseReturnTongueRhythmSanctityMother Tongue Author:Kim Hyesoon
“Poems are a dance of language that comes out when my body taps into the rhythm of language. Rhythm gets us naked and exposes our selves completely.” SelfBodyLanguageNakedRhythm Author:Kim Hyesoon
“Alienation between the content and form happens frequently in my poems because I obstinately carry on dismantling my body, an act you can also call "dismantling delusion." I think that after I dismantle my female body, I can finally dismantle established lyric poems.” ThinkingI CanBodyHappensFormFemaleDelusionAlienationFemale Body Author:Kim Hyesoon
“My body is full of graves. A sepulcher is dug up, and a young girl comes out of it with her dusty hands in tears. A lady who is a young girl and an old girl at the same time feels the presence of the young girl. I feel that the 15-year-old me and the 50-year-old me come out of the sepulcher through an illegal excavation.” FeelsYearsBodyHandsYoungGirlTearsGravesIllegal Author:Kim Hyesoon
“Once, I compared poetry to mothers in my book called To Write as a Woman, because my mother is someone who captures me in her body and gave birth to me out of her desire but washed her hands of me after giving birth to me as a poet.” GivingWritingBookBodyHandsMotherDesirePoetBirthCaptureGiving Birth Author:Kim Hyesoon
“Our mothers who have gone are buried in our bodies. It can be said that we were born with dead mothers in our body.” SaidBodyMotherBornGoneBuriedDead Mother Author:Kim Hyesoon
“You cannot call a poem female just because it is written by a woman. Nevertheless, I think attempts to find femininity in female bodies, life, and thinking, attempts to find a way for women to speak, will improve widely in Korea.” ThinkingWayBodySpeakWrittenFemaleNeverthelessFemininityKoreaFemale Body Author:Kim Hyesoon
“As a sick kid, I always looked out the window. The objects of my observation were the sun, the seasons, the wind, crazy people, and my grandfather's death. During my long period of observation, I felt that something like poems were filling up my body. They were in some kind of state and condition that made them difficult to render into words. As a university student, I tried hard to write them in Korean. It was at that time that I foresaw my death and the world's death. I think my poems started at that time.” PeopleThinkingWorldWritingKindLongMadeHardStatesBodyKidsFeltDifficultSunCrazyConditionsObjectsStudentsWindPeriodsWindowSeasonsSickUniversityObservationGrandfatherFillingMy GrandfatherKoreanCrazy PeopleFilling UpUniversity StudentsSick Kids Author:Kim Hyesoon
