Double S Double S
By Kim Hyesoon
Translated By Don Mee Choi
Ssity doesn’t want to know—your mind
Ssity doesn’t want to know—your ssorrow
Ssity doesn’t want to know anything
yet it offers me sseveral numbers
I’ll no longer take up any sspace in this ssity
I’ll no longer eat anything
I’ll pick a clam with my lips as if I had a beak
ssmudge fish blood onto my face and
grab the wrists of the wind in two equal sstrands
I’ll laugh
I’ll evaporate
I’ll retire
I’ll sstay inconspicuous
How long have I walked? When I chewchew the arcade—ice cream sshop, bakery, bookstore, noodle sshop—
it feels as if the sscorching ssandy beach is about to pour out from my throat
I’ll now become a long trail of birds
I’ll sswaddle the ssity
then the flock of birds will sspeak
(Next, please draw lines to match ssimilar words)
Whale of the SSouth is a flower bed
Cut the ssunlight into cubes and build a wall cube by cube
As ssoon as I dipped my feet into the river, I realized the river’s current was a sswarm of ants
Boat has grown roots
Sstreets make the cars ssit up
then ssuspend them up in the air and
the flock of birds sslides down to the river
When the bird embroiders the dark ssea with a golden thread then
ssnatches up the ssea in its beak, ssoars up, and lets go of it
the ssea currents will sswell over the ssity
Sseawater will leak from between the lines of my notebook
Birds have double s dangling from the bottom of their feet
(Bird on the railing of the bridge of Han River
Future on its left foot
Past on its right foot
Less, ness, less, ness, less, ness
Bird waddles by sswaying its butt
and ss pile up in my diary)
(In the ssity center, I ssuddenly feel the world is sso ssmall; I become claustrophobic)
Therefore, I draw a line across my notebook
sscribbling
away
Bird never sspeaks to anyone first
Of course, I’m the ssame way
My face will grow feathers
I’ll fly away
Translated from the Korean
Notes:
Read the Korean-language original, “쌍시옷 쌍시옷.”
“Double S Double S” is from Phantom Pain Wings by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi, published and printed here with permission of New Directions Publishing. Translation copyright © 2023 Don Mee Choi.
Source: Poetry (May 2023)