“What is it you really want?”

The thought, once stripped, is smiling.

I gaze at it for a long time.

Dr. Siyoung Doung, a poetess from Korea, shares her poems 

Dr. Siyoung Doung graduated from the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Dongguk University and earned a Ph.D. in Korean Language and Literature from Hanyang University. She further expanded her academic pursuits by studying humanities at Regensburg University in Germany. Her teaching career includes positions as a professor at Korea Tourism University in Korea and Jilin University of Finance and Economics in China. Her literary journey began in 2003 with her poetry debut in the literary magazine Dacheung. Since then, she has published numerous poetry collections, including Future Hunting, In Search of a Strange God, The Phone Call from God, The Eyes of November, The Carnival of Time (Anthology), Was It You, Was It Me, or Was It Longing?, The Scent of Secrets, Aria of Everyday Life, The River Flowing Under the Pen, The Magic Letters, and The Horizon Never Gets Wet. In addition to poetry, Doung has contributed significantly to literary research with works such as Roh Cheon-myung’s Poetry and Semiotics, Korean Literature and Semiotics, and Semiotics of Modern Poetry. Her exploration of literature extends into travel writing, with essay collections like Encountering Culture Through Travel and Encountering Travel Through Literature. Her literary excellence has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including the Park Hwa-mok Literary Award (2010), Poetry and Poetics Young Poet Award (2011), the Grand Prize at the Korean Buddhist Literature Awards (2018), the 32nd Dongguk Literary Award (2019), the Yeongrang Literary Award for Criticism (2020), and the 7th Woltan Park Jong-hwa Literary Award by the Korean Writers’ Association (2021). Most recently, she received the Literary Youth Work Award in 2024. In recognition of her contributions to literature, she was also a recipient of a creative grant from the Arts Council Korea in 2005. Dr. Doung is currently the President of the Korean Association of World Literature and lives in Seoul with her husband, a former university professor.

To Strip a Thought Bare

A question wiped white in reply—dawn.

Yesterday, today, tomorrow—wrappers of time.

A morning where beginnings dash about.

A city trailing noise.

Like beer glasses brimming, ears overflow.

Blur cuts the streets—scissors.

Today trapped in habit.

A book reads the person.

Two bodies, three bodies inside one… thought,

Touching each other, then flowing into ten thousand ways.

Is it a trembling? A waiting? Or is it people?

The fluorescent light of daytime. it shines, but doesn’t glow.

A bench that is a seated person.

I want to try walking.

I want to sit where the person is…

“To strip a thought bare”

To see what it is I truly desire.

“What is it you really want?”

The thought, once stripped, is smiling.

I gaze at it for a long time.

***

생각을 발가벗기다

생각을 발가벗기다   

대답으로 하얗게 닦이는 질문, 새벽

어제 오늘 내일 시간 포장지

시작이 뛰어다니는 아침

소음을 따르는 도시

맥주 잔처럼 넘치는 귀

거리를 잘라내는 흐림, 가위

습관에 오늘이 갇혀

책이 사람을 읽어

한 몸 속 두 몸 세 몸 …생각,-

서로 만져보다 만 가지로 흘러가

흔들림인가?, 기다림인가? , 사람들인가?

낯의 형광등,빛나도 빛나지 않아

앉아 있는 사람 벤치

걸어 보고 싶어

사람에 가 앉아 보고 싶어…

‘생각을 발가 벗긴다’

정말 원하는 게 뭔가 보기 위해

“네가 정말 원하는 게 뭐야?”

벗긴 생각이 웃고 있다

그를 오래 바라본다

***

The Door That Opens Me

Each day,

Each day is a door that opens me.

In a single-use day,

Increasingly,

I favor disposable laughs,

Tears,

And paper cups.

Do I also enjoy disposable love?

Would I delight in a disposable birth?

A disposable moment, spilling over, raw and restless now.

Let’s not gulp down life

Without tasting it.

Let’s stop serving our hardships.

Sorrow, the more you scratch, the more it acts like it owns you—an itch.

Choice is a habit of the heart.

O navels of the beginning, O mountains, fields, and seas.

Yesterday is a voice that goes unheard

Today, nod in assent.

Time hesitates.

White strands of hair flutter in the wind.

“Are we washing the reusable world?”

Rain falls.

***

나를 여는 문

날마다는 ‘나’를 여는 문

일회용 하루 속

갈수록,

일회용 웃음,  울음,  컵을 즐겨 쓴다

일회용 사랑도 좋아한다?

일회용 태어남도 좋아할까?

일회용 순간,

찰랑 넘치는, 지금은 생것

맛도 모르고

삶을 꿀꺽 삼키지 말자

힘듦도 더 이상  시중들지 말자

슬픔은 긁을수록 주인 행세 가려움

선택은 마음 습관

태초의 배꼽들아, 산 ,들 ,바다야

어제는 들리지 않는 말

오늘이 고개를 끄떡이자

시간이 주춤거린다

흰 머릿카락 나부낀다

‘다회용 세상을 설거지 한다?’

비가 온다

***

Temple

A temple is not only

Made of stone.

Where the heart bows deeply

That is a temple.