Timehill, and: A Long Time Ago Some King Died

Timehill, and: A Long Time Ago Some King Died Heo Su-Gyeong (bio) Translated by Soje (bio) The following two poems first appeared in Time of Bronze, Time of Potatoes (2005), an antiwar poetry collection by South Korean writer, translator, and archaeologist Heo Su-gyeong. Heo was politicized in college by the pro-democratic protests against South Korea's violent, repressive military dictatorship throughout the 1980s. Her poetry, which reckons with the historical roots of that violence, earned her a reputation as one of the leading poets of her generation, alongside Kim Hyesoon and Choi Seungja. Heo moved to Germany in 1992, where she received a doctorate in Near Eastern Studies and resided until her death in 2018. At the time the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Heo was excavating the ruins of the city of Babylon. —soje [End Page 104] Timehill Six in the morning in August AD 2002 We cut the earth into squares with shovels Here come shards of earthenware and pig bones and goat bones and a dog made of mud and a wheel and finally a corner of a trampled floor from circa 2000 BC We pause the dig and begin cleaning How much of that floor is left, two meters by one meter? We measure its height and bearing and draw the remains on graph paper Two meters by one meter of circa 2000 BC Once we're done taking photos we dig again with shovels Let's go about thirty centimeters deeper Again shards of earthenware and pig bones and cow bones and mud dog and wheel and now even grains hardened like rocks A collapsed stone wall from circa 2100 BC The wall's twenty centimeters tall We go lower lower and dig another meter By sifting the dirt we salvage everything including the earthenware shards In only a meter I've dug up about five hundred years and I'm standing in 2500 BC While Abdullah steps away for breakfast I open a can of tuna If someone finds this tuna can about five hundred years from now how will they sort the order of this tangled time How will they decipher this timehill [End Page 105] A Long Time Ago Some King Died, Inside a house made of mud brick I drink tea, a golden tea brought by men who cross the border at night, a long time ago some king died, the men say, but where could that king's tomb be, we've been going around looking for that tomb for a very long time, the men say, once I find the tomb, once I find the golden tomb that shines like tea-light, once I find the dead king … why my wife disappeared back then, why my house was set on fire back then, why horses trampled on my children back then.… A long time ago some king died, he died long long before these men were born, but their eyes all glint with determination, once I find the tomb, I can find out where my family died.… The king died long long before the grandfathers of these men were born, why are the men trying to find the king's tomb, I drink tea, inside a house made of mud brick I drink tea, why did the king die long before the great-grandfathers of these men were even born? [End Page 106] Heo Su-Gyeong heo su-gyeong (1964–2018) was a poet, translator, and archaeologist. Born in Jinju, South Korea, she wrote six poetry collections, three novels, three essay collections, and two children's books in Korean. Heo's translations from German into Korean include works by Paul Celan and the Grimm Brothers. Soje soje is a poet and the translator of Lee Hyemi's Unexpected Vanilla (Tilted Axis Press, 2020), Choi Jin-young's To the Warm Horizon (Honford Star, 2021), and Lee Soho's Catcalling (Open Letter Books, 2021). They also make chogwa, a quarterly e-zine featuring one Korean poem and multiple English translations. Copyright © 2023 Yale University