I tore my mother open and came inside
I wore my first clothes of my mother's blood
My ears first opened to my mother's screams
My eyes first opened to my mother's fingers
I ate my first food from my mother's spoon
Until my blood became the first clothes of my child
I grew rapidly inside of it
Since no one can leave the labyrinth behind without tearing someone open
For my child to tear me open at the right time
I linked a long cord to the mouth of the pasture
When I tore her open and left the labyrinth, my mother's water
All followed me and went to my daughter
Although my mother became a solid stone for me
The long cord which I and my daughter grasped to come out
Is still connected solidly to the mouth of the pasture
A strong mother is not torn open easily
But for a naked body coming with half a mirror,* as easily as this
She becomes a stone and links to a wide pasture
*Translated by Rodney E. Tyson
Euntaek Hong
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*This allusion to a Korean myth in which a prince, the rightful heir to the throne, is recognized by the possession of half of a broken mirror which was given to his mother while she was still pregnant.
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=KOREAN=
돌 속의 넓은 풀밭
이 향 지
나는 어머니를 찢고 들어왔지요
어머니 피로 첫 옷을 입었고
어머니 비명으로 첫 귀를 열었고
어머니 손가락으로 첫 눈을 떴고
어머니 숟가락으로 첫 밥을 먹었지요
내 피가 내 아이의 첫 옷이 될 때까지
그 안에서 무럭무럭 자랐지요
누군가를 찢지 않고는 미궁 벗어날 수 없나니
나는 내 아이가 때맞춰 나를 찢게
긴 끈을 풀밭 입구까지 이어두었지요
내가 찢고 미궁 벗어날 때 어머니 물
모두 나를 따라와 내 딸에게로 갔지요
어머닌 나로 인해 질긴 돌이 되었으나
나와 내 딸이 붙잡고 빠져나온 긴 끈
질기게도 아직 그 풀밭 어귀에 이어져 있지요
질긴 어머니 잘 찢기지 않지만
반 쪽 거울 들고 오는 발가숭이에겐, 이처럼
쉽게 돌이 되어 넓은 풀밭 이어가지요
A Wide Pasture inside a Stone 
