Literary texts are not background to cinema. They are the inherited form of thought that every image carries inside it. Essays on poetry, prose, translation, and the classical traditions that persist — transformed — long after their moment has passed.
Kim Jeong-hui(金正喜) Poems 93–112 from the Wandang Jeonjip, Volume 9 This is Part 6 of the complete English translation of Kim Jeong-hui’s poems from the Wandang Jeonjip; it covers Volume 9, entries 93 through 112. A Session, a Storm, and the Shape of This Group The center of this installment is a single literary occasion … Read more
Kim Jeong-hui(金正喜) Poems 74–92 from the Wandang Jeonjip, Volume 9 This is Part 5 of the complete English translation of Kim Jeong-hui’s poems from the Wandang Jeonjip; it covers Volume 9, entries 74 through 92. Three Currents The 19 poem entries in this installment divide into three recognizable currents. The first runs through poems 74–77 … Read more
《Albert Camus》 Near the end of the trial in The Stranger, Meursault is asked why he fired the gun. He has been through the questions — the vigil, the coffee, the comedy film, the beach — and now the court wants the thing at the center: the act itself. Why did you shoot? He has … Read more
《Albert Camus》 There is a moment in the trial of The Stranger when it becomes clear that the murder is not the subject. The killing was established quickly: five shots on an Algerian beach, the last four after the Arab was already down. The facts are not in contest. What the prosecutor disputes is something … Read more
Kim Jeong-hui(金正喜) Poems 56–73 from the Wandang Jeonjip, Volume 9 This is Part 4 of the complete English translation of Kim Jeong-hui’s poems from the Wandang Jeonjip; it covers Volume 9, entries 56 through 73. Three Things Give This Group Its Character The first is poem 57, in which Kim formally names his study 寶覃 … Read more
《Albert Camus》 The man Meursault kills on the beach in The Stranger has no name. He is called “the Arab” throughout — not a man, not a person, not even “an Arab” with the indefinite article’s acknowledgment that here is one instance among many. The Arab. The definite article is being asked to do something … Read more
《Albert Camus》 In 1946, Stuart Gilbert sat down with Albert Camus’s L’Étranger and had to decide what to do with the word maman. He translated it as “mother.” Forty-two years later, Matthew Ward faced the same sentence — the most celebrated opening line in modern French literature, by then annotated in thousands of classrooms, printed … Read more
Kim Jeong-hui(金正喜) Poems 37–55 from the Wandang Jeonjip, Volume 9 This is Part 3 of the complete English translation of Kim Jeong-hui’s poems from the Wandang Jeonjip; it covers Volume 9, entries 37 through 55, a group that includes three distinctive clusters: an elegy, a sequence of ten poems addressed to Japan, and a plum-blossom … Read more
Kim Jeong-hui(金正喜) Poems 19–36 from the Wandang Jeonjip, Volume 9 This is Part 2 of the complete English translation of Kim Jeong-hui’s poems from the Wandang Jeonjip; it covers Volume 9, entries 19 through 36, moving from seasonal lyrics and social occasions through Buddhist mountain temples to a remarkable sequence of poems written on the … Read more
Kim Jeong-hui(金正喜) Poems 1–18 from the Wandang Jeonjip, Volume 9 This is Part 1 of the complete English translation of Kim Jeong-hui’s poems from the Wandang Jeonjip; it covers Volume 9, entries 1 through 18, comprising the opening works of the collection. The World These Poems Inhabit The first eighteen entries of Volume 9 open … Read more