Mask by Lee Gil-Won

 

 

Mask

 

I have several masks.

Before my wife and son,

Before friend, poet, child, adult, man, woman,

On each occasion I quickly switch to another mask

From the collection I carry on my back.

Nobody has seen my naked face.

One day,

While I lay comfortably without a mask,

My wife saw me.

She shuddered,

Saying I looked repulsive.

Oops, I thought, and put the mask back on

Vowing never again to forget?

This autumn,

In the moonlight so bright it was sorrowful,

I thought no one would see,

So I quietly removed my mask and looked at the sky.

I looked at the stars.

God, who knows my face well,

Descends on the moonlight

And dries my tears.

 

Biography

Poet Mr. Lee Gil-Won has served as a director of International PEN and as the chairman of International PEN Korea Center. He is currently an advisor to Exiled North Korean PEN, the editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Literature and Creation, and an editorial advisor for the literary magazine Minerva.

He has published numerous poetry collections, including Self-Portrait of a Hahoe Mask, Meditation on a Few Ginkgo Nuts, Sitting on an Eggshell, One Morning, Becoming a Tree, Heyri Psalms, Sunset Glow, Mask, and Adonis Amurensis, among many others. He has also authored a theoretical book on poetry titled The Practice and Theory of Poetry Writing. Additionally, he has published English poetry collections such as Poems of Lee Gil-Won, Sunset Glow, and MASK, as well as French and Hungarian translations of his works, including La Rivière du Crépuscule (French) and Napfény Palota (Hungarian).

Throughout his career, he has received numerous literary awards, including the Korea Culture and Arts Award, the Cheon Sang-byeong Poetry Award, the Yun Dong-ju Literary Award, the Seoul City Cultural Award, the Poets’ Choice Award, and the Korea Christian Literature Award, among many others. 

Prepared by Angela Kosta Executive Director of the Magazines: MIRIADE, NUANCES ON THE PANORAMIC CANVAS, BRIDGES OF LITERATURE, journalist, poet, essayist, publisher, literary critic, editor, translator, promoter