Yeon Myung-ji, poem
Moderator 
Poetry Orphanage
by Yeon Myung-ji
Carefully, I pass through the narrow birth canal of words.
Voices that used to run across the prairie scale the wall, lightly, as if gossiping about a stranger.
People who loved words (horses) gathered them to build a house,
and they receive congratulations on giving birth.
Saying they love living words that bruise the reader's heart,
the words mumble, munching on carrots.
At the table where unsafe words, having lost their mother's hand, keep piling up,
I am picking apart and eating the words of someone I do not know.
Sometimes, a thorn pricks my eye.
When I encounter a sentence crouching inside a faded photograph,
sadness scatters away like dust.
A sentence that slides open my past days soaked in the rainy season,
and gently touches my forehead—it keeps me alive.
Pouring water with all my heart so that the words may grow well,
I stroke them softly, then pat them on the back.
I stroll delightfully between daily life and my daydreams.
Between the pages of the poetry book, where it seems as though nothing will ever happen,
fingerprints gather, welling up. Abandoned poetry books.
The night that recalls forgotten things is the most terrifying.
On days when an error window occasionally pops up in my head, I move forward, twisting my waist.
There are days when, after sitting inside a poetry book for a moment and standing back up, the words meet the dawn as if playing a prank.
All the birds that leave the poetry book become orphans.
시집 고아원
연명지
말의 좁은 산도를 지나가요 조심스럽게
초원을 뛰어다니던 목소리들이 담장을 넘고 남 이야기 하듯 가볍게
말을 좋아한 사람들이 말을 모아 집을 짓고
출산을 했다고 축하를 받아요
읽는 사람의 심장을 다치게 하는 살아있는 말들이 좋다고, 말은 당근을 먹으며 오물거려요
엄마 손을 놓친 불안전한 말들이 쌓여가는 식탁에서
내가 모르는 한 사람의 말을 발라먹고 있어요
가시가 눈을 찌르기도 해요
빛바랜 사진 속에 웅크린 문장을 만나면 슬픔은 먼지처럼 날아가요
우기에 젖어있던 지난날을 스윽 열고 들어와 이마를 짚어주는 문장이 나를 살게 해요
말이 잘 자라도록 정성을 다해 물을 주고
가만가만 쓸어주다 토닥토닥 등을 두드려 주고요
일상과 나의 몽상 사이에서 즐겁게 거닐어요
아무 일도 일어나지 않을 것 같은 시집 갈피마다 지문들이
울컥울컥, 고여있어요 버려진 시집들
잊혀진 것들을 다시 부르는 밤이 제일 무서워요
머릿속에 가끔 에러 창이 뜨는 날은 허리를 비틀며 나아갔어요
시집 속에 잠시 앉아있다 일어나면 말들이 장난치듯 새벽을 만나는 날이 있어요
시집을 벗어난 새들은 모두 고아가 되지요
Seventeen-Year-Old Miss Marco Polo Sheep
By Yeon Myung-ji
Miss Marco Polo Sheep of the Pamir Mountains loved almond blossoms
and was an aspiring singer
who sang along to K-POP.
An aspirant,
what a beautiful occupation.
Riding the rhythm on the breath of the wind,
an aspirant walking the grassland.
She loves the wild goat
that endured the winter, tightly chewing on festuca grass.
The beasts of winter
must be winter aspirants.
The ghost of the snow mountains, the snow leopard,
must be a snow aspirant.
When you lie face down on the grassland, the grass sways,
and when you flip over the back of a stone, fish swim-
the aspirants of nature.
Only when a river flows from the belly
does the voice break through, says Miss Marco Polo Sheep.
Even if bitten on the nape and blood flows,
the song of the idol goat cannot be given up.
The pop song, which claimed that when the snow melts,
the leopard would melt too,
was plagiarism anyway.
The moonlight darkens,
and the snow leopard of Pamir, a high and desolate land,
drags its long tail across the ridge-
the ghost of the alpine.
The aspirant of a fairy tale,
caught off guard by the seventeen-year-old Miss Marco Polo Sheep.
열일곱 마르코 폴로 양
연명지
파미르 고원의 마르코 폴로 양은 아몬드꽃을 좋아하고
K-POP을 따라 부르는 가수 지망생이었어요
지망생,
아름다운 직업이지요
바람의 숨결에 리듬을 타며
초원을 걷는 지망생
페스튜카풀을 꾹꾹 씹으며 겨울을 견딘
야생 염소를 사랑하지요
겨울의 짐승들은 겨울 지망생이겠죠
설산의 유령, 눈표범은 눈 지망생일 거고요
초원에 엎드리면 풀이 흔들리고
돌의 등을 뒤집으면 물고기가 헤엄치는
자연의 지망생들,
배에서 강이 흘러야
목소리가 트인다는 마르코 폴로 양
목덜미를 물려 피가 흘러도
포기할 수 없는 아이돌 염소의 노래
눈이 녹으면 표범도 녹을 거라는
가요는 어차피 표절이었어요
달빛이 어두워지고
능선을 끌고 가는 긴 꼬리의
높고 황량한 땅 파미르의 눈표범, 고산의 유령
열일곱 마르코 폴로 양이 방심한
설화의 지망생
Profile
Poet Yeon Myung-ji began her literary career in 2013 with the poetry collection 『Gashibi』, published in the Minerva Poetry Series.
Poet Yeon Myung-ji began her literary career in 2013 with the poetry collection 『Gashibi』, published in the Minerva Poetry Series.
Her published works include the poetry collections 『Sitting Like an Apple』 and 『Where would the House of the Sorry' be? 』 the e-poetry collection 『Seventeen Marco Polos,』 and the travel essay 『Step by Step, Walking the Camino.』
She has received the Tolstoy Literary Award, the Homi Literary Award, the Cheongsong Gaekju Literary Award, and the Aviation Literary Award. In 2025, she was awarded the Bronze Prize in Poetry at the Literature Asia Awards.
Her poems have been translated and published in local languages in India, Pakistan, Kosovo, Italy, Egypt, the United States, and Belgium,Greece,UK,Germany.
