55th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards Poetry Grand Prize: The Snowman Suicide Incident
Cover of Choi Seung-ho's "The Snowman Suicide Incident" / Courtesy of Dalasil Publishers
Written by Choi Seung-ho
Translated by Julie Sohn
The Snowman Suicide Incident
The snowman was lying in an empty bathtub. Before turning on the water, he pondered whether he should continue living or not. The fact that there was no reason to keep living could not be a reason for suicide, but the fact that there was no reason to die could not be a reason to live either. There was no reason to die, and there was no reason to live.
When one is lying in an empty bathtub for no particular reason, should he turn on the hot water or the cold water? The snowman thought the outcome would be the same either way. In hot water, he would melt quickly, and in cold water, he would melt more slowly, but either way, he would inevitably melt.
I want to melt in warm water. Haven’t I lived too coldly for too long? The snowman turned on the hot water, and watched as his body melted into water. He then fell asleep.
A gentle steam rose from the bathtub.
Practice Life
There was a man who lived a practice life so that he may live an amazing one. Having practiced love and breakups, he decided to practice marriage. After spending some time practicing this, he found himself with a wife and two children. In order to practice being an ideal head of the family, there were times when he quit drinking and smoking and devoted himself solely to his family. In order to practice a broken home, he spent his days in debauchery by having affairs, gambling and drinking. When he tore apart his home in fits of violence and watched as his wife and children cried, he thought that the sadness and fear they were experiencing were merely a part of their practice of emotions.
After several years, he thought it had become time to practice divorce. However, he failed to do so. His wife did not want a divorce because she thought it would disrupt the children’s education. He tried to marry another woman instead to practice divorce, but this proved to be legally impossible in a monogamous society.
Since his divorce practice plans did not go well, he thought he would try practicing murder. So one day, in broad daylight, he stabbed to death a young man passing by in front of a police station. He was then sent to prison. There, there was not much practicing he could do. He practiced solitude, he practiced despair, and he practiced feeling emptiness. Eventually, he decided he would stop practicing life. He told the wardens that he wanted to go out into the world, but they would not let him.
When the date of his execution came, he muttered, “Now I will practice death. After I die, I’ll finish my practice life and finally live an amazing life. My life is just beginning.” And then, he disappeared.
The Mirror’s Rage
The mirror could no longer remain indifferent. Unable to bear the disgust of being a part of an increasingly dirty world, it shattered its entire body into pieces with the force of its rage. It was a type of suicide. But then, it found that the world that it did not want to see was reflected once again in each and every fragment.
Ant
One day, an ant got married to a pit.
From the moment that the pit became his wife, the ant worked tirelessly and without rest. He had to bring back dew in his mouth in order to moisten the pit’s throat and bring back food in order to fill her belly. The ant was diligent. He scavenged for so long that his body was nearly burnt to a crisp under the scorching sun. He would drag his exhausted body back by sunset, and fall asleep next to the pit. However, he could not sleep soundly because of the persistent grumbling. The pit was always grumbling. It was a bottomless pit, so no matter how much she ate, she was always hungry. Think about it. How can a bottomless pit ever be satisfied?
Not long after marrying the pit, the pit gave birth to four more pits, all of them bottomless. Seeing the hungry baby pits with their mouths wide open, the ant realized that he had become the head of the pit family and that his responsibility was enormous. So he worked even harder, scurrying around tirelessly. Every time he brought back a large morsel of food, his teeth grew stronger. His jaws became sturdier, and his gait became faster as the days went by.
Having become obsessed with bringing food to the pits quickly, he often went hungry. His stomach was always empty, and his waist was so thin it looked as though it might snap. Nonetheless, the ant had no time to lament his suffering and not a single tear to shed.
With his hard ant eyes and solitary expression, the ant is still working for the pits today.
The ant is small, but the ant is strong.