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A Poetry Reading by Poet Jin Eun-young "In Houyhnhnmland"

by Korean Literature Now December 3, 2024

A Poetry Reading by Poet Jin Eun-young "In Houyhnhnmland"

Jin Eun-young

Jin Eun-young is a poet and publisher. She debuted as poet in 2000 when her poems were published in the spring issue of Literature and Society. She teaches literary counselling at the Korea Counseling Graduate University. Her poetry collections include A Dictionary of Seven Words, We, Day by Day, I Love You Like an Old Street, and more. Her works in translation include We, Day by Day (White Pine Press, 2018). She has translated Sylvia Plath’s novel Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom into Korean.

In Houyhnhnmland

Books soaked in the wine of his blood

Nakba in Arabic—

Shoah in Hebrew—

The somehow beautiful shape of the lips around such words

Through the TV’s Hubble telescope,

We can see at the end of space another world’s children dying

If we don’t cover our eyes, if we don’t turn from the sight

We can always watch death

Close by as well

We can just imagine—it’s so far away

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