Description

In "I Put Dinner in the Drawer," the titles of the poems such as "Sketch of Evening," "Song Heard at Dawn," "Bleeding Eyes," and "Winter Beyond the Mirror" reveal an emotional resonance. The collection is filled with voices that confront existence and language transparently, becoming clearer in the darkness and silence. There are moments of joy and wonder as the poet discovers a "language-soul that shines in the gaze of pain and despair" (literary critic Jo Yeon-jeong).
All the vivid things I have
Will crumble
Crumbling tongue and lips,
Warm two fists
With clear two eyes that will crumble
I watch a particularly large snowflake
Landing on the thin ice of a black puddle
Something
Is shining
-Excerpt from "Sketch of Evening 4"
The irony of life being born from death, light from darkness
The poet, awake primarily in the time transitioning from late afternoon to midnight (evening), and again from midnight to just before dawn, expresses a desire to speak about pain, saying, "If allowed, I want to talk about suffering" ("Bleeding Eyes 3").
Opening this dim evening
If I enter behind the world
Everything
Turns its back
The quietly turned backs
Are rather bearable for me
-Excerpt from "Bleeding Eyes 4"
Before specific and unique misfortunes arise in human life, the poet wishes to illuminate the origin of pain and the essence of truth in the "gap between death and life, / a space that has opened" ("Mark Rothko and Me"). To do this, he does not hesitate to take his bleeding body as collateral, "Shoulders turned inward / bending at the waist / knees bent and tightly clasping the ankles" ("An Object Called Heart").
If someone had knocked on my body, I would have been surprised
If someone had listened, I would have been surprised
Because the sound of black water would have echoed
Because the deep water would have resonated
Roundly
More roundly
The ripples would have spread
-Excerpt from "When Tears Come, My Body Becomes an Empty Jar"
The clear things that had settled inside me
Are drying in the scorching sun
Sticky things
Even the sorrowful ones
Are drying up and becoming lighter together
-Excerpt from "Anatomy Theater 2"
That drying and emptying body is an inseparable comrade of the soul, and thus the soul also shatters, and the feeling of irretrievable loss and fracture inevitably arrives.
One
Late evening I
Was watching the steam rising from the rice
Contained in the white air
At that moment I realized
That something had forever passed by
Even now, forever
Is passing by
I should eat rice
I ate rice
-Excerpt from "One Late Evening I"
However, the poet does not succumb to this sense of loss and sadness; rather, he confronts pain head-on. His voice, filled with hot passion, is more resolute than ever, as he likely draws from the overwhelming breath, warm blood, passionate love, and youthful vigor found in the poems written during his twenties, which are included in the fifth part of this collection ('The House of Dark Light').
To look straight ahead and stomp my feet
Even if my ankles shake or break
Even if the rhythm scatters or crumbles
My face will face forward
My two eyes will blaze
I will stare straight at what cannot be faced
So, whether it be the sun or death,
Fear or sorrow
If I can only overcome that
I will fill my heart with wind
And slide, obliquely
-Excerpt from "Winter Beyond the Mirror 9 - Flamenco of the Tango Theater"
Wherever the twilight slips through
Pieces, pieces
Struggling to shine
Ah, first dawn,
Washed all night, now frozen
Always there, awakened sorrow,
I dedicate my
Vivid blood vessels, my heartbeat
-Excerpt from "First Dawn"
The fiery pain that pierces through life, the origin of Han Kang's heart-wrenching language
Now, when "the quiet evening flows through the paper of ice" ("Sketch of Evening 3"), in the dream of crossing over in the darkness, using the tongue that "steps back roundly" ("An Object Called Heart") in the noon beyond the mirror or the dark blue midnight outside the mirror, what the poet seeks to reach is pure language, the essence of life, and some urgency and landscape of recovery beyond pain and despair.
When the you inside me weeps
What should I do
Like looking into the face of a screaming child
Towards tears like bitter foam
It's okay
Not "Why are you like this?" but
It's okay.
Now it's okay.
-Excerpt from "It's Okay"
Now
What is it to live
When lying down and asking
Sunlight fell on my face
I closed my eyes
Until the light passed
Quietly
-Excerpt from "Song of Recovery"
In the poetry collection "I Put Dinner in the Drawer," there are bleeding words striving to approach the picture of silence. And there is a poet who gazes intensely at the heart of the bleeding language, confirming humanity as a being of the soul. He seeks to reach the first language that rescued shining truths from the world of silence and darkness. This collection will serve as a cornerstone that brings us closer to some intimate origin - a sanctuary that has been mentioned first when discussing Han Kang's literature, beyond the intense imagery and sensory sentences.
■ Back Cover Text
On Subway Line 4,
Between Seonbawi Station and Namtaeryeong Station,
There is a section where power supply is cut off.
I counted the numbers to measure the time.
Twelve or thirteen seconds.
In that time, the lights on the ceiling of the carriage go out
And dim lights are sporadically
Illuminated by emergency power.
It becomes too dark to continue reading the book,
I lift my head.
The faces of the people curled up across from me suddenly look pale.
The young man leaning against the door with a sign saying not to lean looks precarious.
It's dark.
Were we this dark?
Listening to the rattling sound
The speed of the subway, which was fierce, is gradually slowing down.
It is sliding on the rails only by acceleration.
The moment I feel it has distinctly slowed down,
The lights come on all at once, and it rattles fiercely again. Suddenly, no one
Looks pale anymore.
What have I
Crossed over?