Cover of Hwang In-chan's poetry collection "Let's Say This Is My Heart," which includes "A Bright Room" / Courtesy of Munhakdongne

Written by Hwang In-chan

Translated by Levi Lee

A Bright Room

In truth, I can see ghosts—Grandmother's ghost is standing by your side right now and a ghost of a dog is floating about behind her

Would you believe me if I told you this?

The photographer tells me to open my eyes wider, but I reply that they are completely open

Because I'll see too many things if I open my eyes completely

The bird that I buried just earlier in the playground is flying around the living room, I meet a friend who's unaware of the ghost on his back, and I hear that there is no playground there

It's always difficult to distinguish

If the figure greeting me from afar is a person or not

And there are times when you talk to me—not realizing that you're a ghost yourself

You still believe that you love me

The angels that brought you hover in circles above—if I close my eyes for a moment, everything will disappear

(Someone closed their eyes so I'm going to take another one)

The photographer tells us to open our eyes wide, but I reply that I can't open them anymore

A dead bird

Gets ready to fly from your mouth

Windows on the Left, Doors on the Right

All the classrooms in my memory have

windows on the left, doors on the right

You're always by the left side windows

Beyond them is the light

An angel with a big head is floating in the air

and a scene of a missile and meteor crashing together

Such a scene isn't in my memory, but

windows on the left, doors on the right

But I had these memories

The day I gazed at you sitting by the window

with the classroom's back door half open

I was amazed because the nape of your neck in the light was so white

That was my first

There's no reality in your poetry

Well, you don't even exist in reality

Although all I could see outside the windows was white light

Although I already knew quite well that there's nothing more than that

Windows on the left, doors on the right

Someone was shouting that only the dead walk to the left

Saving That Sun

Together with the summer sun

a bird flew into the house

He makes a commotion that the bird frightens him

and the bird walks with hurried steps around the whole house

Like it's looking for something

But the bird doesn't find anything

Just pokes around here and there

And on every such occasion, he lets out a shout

Wondering how it could have gotten in when all the windows are closed,

he flings the windows wide open

Hoping the bird leaves on its own

But the bird didn't leave

and he looked at me with a face on the verge of tears

Since then, the bird lived here for a long time

Although it finds nothing, it pokes around the house like it's looking for something

Even though it saw the windows wide open

after he left

The bird found nothing

Happiness of Humanity

There are ducks walking in a line on a lawn, and

that's the happiness of humanity

That's the sadness of humanity

Sadness is not being able to go back home when your feet are wet with rainwater, a child says

The teacher just laughs instead of answering

The ducks keep poking at the soil as if something's there

raising their tail feathers and shaking their butts

I won't return home, the child thinks

The ducks are floating on the water—the soil is left disturbed