Face

Kim Hyesoon
Translated from the Korean

Inside you there is another you

The you inside you has a tight hold on your body that’s why your fingernails curl roundly inward, your outer ears eddying also get sucked into your body if the you inside you lets go of its tight hold on your hand probably at that moment you will not exist in this world

Your face solidifies into the same shape that the you inside you has pulled taut that face sometimes leans out into my face outside you, I feel inside your two pupils the you inside you that peers out at me but the you inside you has never let go of that tight hold on your hand you are still pulled taut your face is deeply wrinkled from enduring that tension

And the you inside you is so strong that the I inside me is about to be pulled into you

You have now drunk a glass of red wine and hold cheese in your hand

The I inside me is reminded that cheese is made of milk and then worries which cow inside cow spewed out that milk

Even if you are far away the you inside you is still here I cannot send away or avoid the you inside you

Maybe I am the hostage of an absentee

While the I inside me has a tight hold on me I too will remain alive but even so I want to dedicate to your table every morning the cheese made from the I inside me

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Kim Hyesoon is a South Korean poet and professor at Seoul Institute of the Arts. Her many books of poetry have been translated into English, French, and German.

Sue Hyon Bae was raised in South Korea, Malaysia, and Texas, and received an MFA from Arizona State University. Her co-translation of Kim Hyesoon’s A Cup of Red Mirror will be published by Action Books in 2018.

Gulf Coast

Winter/Spring 2018

Houston, Texas

University of Houston

Editor
Justin Jannise

Managing Editor
Paige Quiñones

Poetry Editors
Josh English
Devereux Fortuna
Nicholas Rattner

Begun by Donald Barthelme and Phillip Lopate, Gulf Coast is the nationally-distributed journal housed within the University of Houston’s English Department.

Gulf Coast is still student-run. We seek to promote and publish quality literature in our local and national communities while simultaneously teaching excellence in literary publishing to graduate and undergraduate students. While we are committed to providing a balanced combination of literary approaches and voices, all of the editorial positions are two-year terms, thus ensuring a regular turnover in the specific personality and style of the journal.

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