Translation Tuesday: Three poems by Choi Seung-ja

Existential despair and dreamlike descriptions of nature abound in these poems by fierce feminist and iconic Korean poet Choi Seung-ja

By Choi Seung-ja and Lei Kim for Translation Tuesdays by Asymptote, part of the Guardian Books Network

Relentless time is the subject of these poems by Choi Seung-ja, an iconic figure in Korean literature and so influential that she was once called “the common pronoun of the 80s’ poets.” But the existential despair captured in broad bravura strokes here transcends both culture and era.

—Lee Yew Leong, Editor-in-Chief, Asymptote