A dozen years ago, I produced a translation of Saijō Yaso’s 1919 poem “Tomino no Jigoku” (“Tomino’s Hell”), motivated in part by its strange afterlife as a bit of creepypasta—an Internet “cursed poem.” At the time, I aimed to bring clarity and coherence to a text that had often been…
The poem “The Midday Witch” (“Polednice” in Czech) was written by Czech folklorist and poet Karel Jaromír Erben in 1834. It was included in his 1853 collection A Bouquet of Folk Legends (Kytice z pověstí národních), also known by the short title Bouquet (Kytice). In the piece, Erben evokes the…
Since South Korean poet Han Kang has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, I wanted to celebrate that well-deserved recognition by sharing one of my favorite poems of hers, from her 2013 collection 서랍에 저녁을 넣어 두었다 (I Put the Evening in the Drawer). A Thing Called the Heart…
About five years ago, I translated but didn’t publish the shorter of the two existing Nahuatl poetry codices, the one known by its Spanish title Romances de los señores de la Nueva España, which I decolonize as SONGS OF THE LORDS OF ANAHUAC. For those who are interested in Nezahualcoyotl,…
Episode 13 of the K-drama Welcome to Samdal-ri features a mournful poem about loving someone in solitary silence, from poet Kim Ki-seong’s collection Love Blooms, but It Blooms in Silence (사랑은 피워도, 침묵 속에 피워라). However, the show’s writer (Kwon Hye-joo) helps us to see that even the cold, dull…
Mira Bai was a Hindu mystic and saint in the 16th century. Though born a Rajput princess, she was drawn to the god Krishna since childhood. Mira Bai rejected traditional roles for women after the death of her husband, choosing instead to spend her life worshipping that incarnation of Vishnu…
Episode 12 of the K-drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo features a powerful poem about putting others first, from author Ahn Do-hyun’s 2004 collection Lonely High Solitary (외롭고 높고 쓸쓸한). I couldn’t get the powerful imagery off my mind: in Korea even today, people fight off the winter cold with charcoal briquettes.…
I’ve been watching the Korean drama 기상청 사람들: 사내연애 잔혹사 편, known in English as Forecasting Love and Weather. In episode six, there’s a lovely scene in which the two leads (who work for the Korea Meteorological Administration and therefore know a lot about the weather) are reading a lovely…
Like many folks around the world, I was introduced to the poetry of Kim Sowol—who published a single book of poems, Azaleas, before dying at age thirty-two—through the show The King: Eternal Monarch. In episode three, the eponymous ruler of alternate Earth Kingdom of Corea pulls Azaleas from a shelf…
One of the many things I love about watching K-drama is all the wonderful poetry I’ve been introduced to. During episode 10 of Hometown Cha Cha Cha, male protagonist Hong Ban-jang reads the poem “The Gatekeeper” from the collection Portrait of Echoes by Kim Haengsook (so that female protagonist Yoon…
