Kim Hyesoon: Autobiografi av död
KIM HYESOON: AUTOBIOGRAFI AV DÖD (20-TAL, 2022)
TRANSLATED BY ANDJEAS EJIKSSON & JENNIFER HAYASHIDA
The title section of Kim Hyesoon’s book "Autobiography of Death" consists of forty-nine poems, each poem representing a single day during which the spirit roams after death before it enters the cycle of reincarnation. The poems give voice to those who met unjust deaths during Korea’s violent contemporary history, but also unveil what Kim calls “the structure of death, that we remain living in.” "Autobiography of Death" at once reenacts trauma and narrates death — how we die and how we survive within this cyclical structure. In this sea of mirrors, the plural “you” speaks as a body of multitudes that has been beaten, bombed, and buried many times over by history. The volume concludes on the other side of the mirror with “Face of Rhythm,” a poem about individual pain, illness, and meditation.