In the goodreads review I just posted about Hyesoon’s book, Poor Love Machine, I named a “humidity” to the surrealism. And, as I said there, “humidity” might not have been the best term, because it often indicates a heavy weight made heavier the longer someone stands in a humid environment.
I do think, however, that heaviness is something readers should feel while reading the book, especially as the imagery depicts the kind of oppression Korean women were experiencing at the time the poems were written. The imagery feels weighted down. For instance, the poem I’m considering for this post, “Fever,” uses images like, “My bones are etched to the floor of the room / like a fish fossil” or “The shadow that walks with its head down.” Both weight the poem tonally. Tie it to a darker side of feeling and thinking. Which is fitting to a poem titled, “Fever.”
But what I am consistently fascinated by with Hyesoon’s poems is the ease of movement. In “Fever” the shift from one image to the next is paced at the stanza break with shorter stanzas. By its middle, the poem has taught me to anticipate a new image as I read on to the next stanza. But the poem has also made clear I will be surprised by that image. I will feel the confounding logic of “The pavements you laid one by one” becoming “roads” that “explode” inside the poet’s body. This “Fever” is more than feverish.
It’s an isolation. Maybe even an abandonment of the poet’s body. Even while she’s inside her own home! As “The flowering branches fall out of / the flower wallpaper” along with “The silver spoon inside that dish bin” that remembers her lips.
And while there’s a lot I admire in the substance of the poem alone. There’s even more that I admire in the poet’s apparent confidence to know what she will say next will surprise, will be an explosive addition to the poem, will provide an energy that pushes out at the closed-in-ness of a “fever.” And, additionally, how this kind of confidence and energy will show itself throughout the book.
Helpful Links
- Kim Hyesoon’s Home Page
- Don Mee Choi’s Translations Page
- Action Books (Home to so many spectacular books in translation)