Poet Siyoung Doung:
Poet Siyoung Doung
Poet Siyoung
Doung graduated from the Department of Korean Language and Literature at
Dongguk University and went on to earn a Ph.D. in Korean Language and Literature
from Hanyang University. She further expanded her academic pursuits by studying
humanities at Regensburg University in Germany. Her teaching career includes
positions as a professor at Korea Tourism University and Jilin University of
Finance and Economics in China.
Her literary
journey began in 2003 with her poetry debut in the literary magazine Dacheung. Since then, she has published numerous
poetry collections, including Future Hunting, In
Search of a Strange God, The Phone Call from God, The Eyes of November, The
Carnival of Time (Anthology), Was It You, Was It Me, or Was It Longing?, The
Scent of Secrets, Aria of Everyday Life, The River Flowing Under the Pen, The
Magic Letters, and The Horizon Never Gets Wet. In addition to poetry, Doung has
contributed significantly to literary research with works such as Roh
Cheon-myung's Poetry and Semiotics, Korean Literature and Semiotics, and
Semiotics of Modern Poetry. Her exploration of literature extends into travel
writing, with essay collections like Encountering
Culture Through Travel and Encountering Travel Through Literature. Her
literary excellence has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards,
including the Park Hwa-mok Literary Award (2010), Poetry and Poetics Young Poet
Award (2011), the Grand Prize at the Korean Buddhist Literature Awards (2018),
the 32nd Dongguk Literary Award (2019), the Yeongrang Literary Award for
Criticism (2020), and the 7th Woltan Park Jong-hwa Literary Award by the Korean
Writers’ Association (2021). Most recently, she received the Literary Youth
Work Award in 2024.
In recognition
of her contributions to literature, She was also a recipient of a creative
grant from the Arts Council Korea in 2005.
Like a Single Word
There,
we live like a single word.
whose hand placed it,
people live, fitted into the world.
I do not know where I am.
Just standing—
Hands engraving handprints,
feet engraving footprints.
Birds know
that the void is eternity.
Living is the breaking of one boundary after another.
The time they wrote
abandons them in the end.
mountain-like buildings,
valley-like alleys,
water-like people.
save it sparingly, fearing they might grow used to it.
An angel slips between their lips,
and they take out a single smile.
한 마디 말처럼
거기,
모르고 사는 반지처럼
세상에 끼워 사는 사람들
어디 있는지 몰라
그냥 서 있는 곳
손으론 손자국 판화
발로는 발자국 판화
새들은 안다
허공이 영원이라는 걸
사는 건 경계가 경계를 허무는 것
그들이 쓴 시간이 그들을 버린다
산 같은 빌딩
계곡 같은 골목
물 같은 사람들
익숙해질까 봐 아껴 쓰고 있다
입에 드나드는 천사
웃음 하나 꺼내 본다
