Transcribing Hamburg By Ahn Joo Cheol 함부르크 안주철 시인 [ Photo with poem / Experiment24 ]

Poet Ahn Joo-cheol has not published many poems as Korean poets, but he is said to be a poet who constantly strives and challenges in academia.

I tried to transcribe this poem as a representative work in his recently published poetry collection.

Also, this poem was translated into English well, so I transcribed it together.


Experiment24




Hamburg   By Ahn Joo Cheol

Translated by Jeanine Walker and Shim Jaekwan


Now I have a new hometown to die in and a new grave.

Now I have a far north European port

where I can touch the darkness for a long time.


Even though I recognize that the hometown

I was born in died before me and that a hometown

is nothing but a father,

even though I’m tired of living on the backs of stupid metaphors

and the tumbler on the shaking tips of my fingers is heavy,


the waves that count the age of the sea

flood onto the beach. I untie my mother’s bandage.

Blood-soaked gauze floods in.

The gauze turns away from me and comes rushing in.


Because my daughter’s hometown

is a faraway country where flowers bloom on the horizon,

I decide to forget the village where I was born and its shameful nationality.

Like giving water to a dead tree,

like leaning into a dead tree, my hand trembling,

I decide to forget.


Sitting on the seawall like a fish caught on a hook,

holding a boiled octopus while thinking about

a boiled seawall, I smirk. There may be sand

on my daughter’s toes, but the power of the waves

isn’t necessarily due to the age of the sand.



                                      Hamburg  By Ahn Joo Cheol


함부르크  By Ahn Joo Cheol


새롭게 죽을 고향과 새로운 무덤이 생겼다.

어둠을 오랫동안 만질 수 있는

머나먼 북구의 항구가 생겼다.


내가 태어난 고향이 나보다 먼저 죽어서

고향도 아버지에 불과하다는 걸

인정하게 되었지만

미련한 비유에 기대어 살기에도 지쳐서

잘게 떠는 손끝에 걸리는 술잔이 무거워서


해변으로 바다의 나이를 세는

파도가 밀려온다. 엄마의 붕대를 푼다.

피에 젖은 거즈가 밀려온다.

등을 돌리고 밀려온다.


내가 낳은 딸아이의 고향은

수평선 위에 꽃이 피는 먼 나라이기 때문에

내가 태어난 마을과 쑥스러운 국적을 잊기로 한다.

죽은 나무에 물을 주듯이

죽은 나무에 내 손의 떨림을 기울여주듯이

잊기로 한다.


방파제에 앉아 삶은 문어를 들고

삶은 방파제를 떠올리다 낚싯바늘에 걸린

잡어처럼 피식 웃는다. 딸아이의 발가락에

모래가 낀 것 같지만 파도가 센 것이 꼭

모래의 나이만은 아닐 것이다.



함부르크01  안주철


함부르크02  안주철

Reading this poem depicts a scene of complex feelings about life and reminiscing about memories of the past.
It seems to depict the feelings of a boy who has aged.


https://youtu.be/HkwUSKRIyXs    함부르크 필사

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