It is worth remarking that “mense” is a shortening of menstruation, which I have heard Korean women, my ex-wife especially, say; however, I cannot further elucidate the reason, but can only speculate, if this is because menstruation is a difficult word, or if the shortening has become shorthand Konglish, thus the source becoming lost the molasses of cross-cultural slang. My ex-wife would refer to the dog being “on her mense.”
Kim Seung-hee is one of the finest poets ever & everyone should rummage her poetry from somewhere & read it.
Considering a line by Kim Seung-hee
…“The world of propriety properly exists”
except for me & Seung-hee.
I’d put a blowtorch to nature.
“You can’t spell immense without ‘men’.” Fuck off.
You can’t spell it without mense too.
But how best to translate “dangyeon” in this context
: propriety | naturalness | rightness | common sense | a matter of course?
It is more felt than describable—utterly personal.
“On the final night I saw a firefly exit the darkness”
is all I will say | the rest will be kept secret |
especially the… syncopated
squeak from somewhere in the dark vegetation |
the coarse whine of a puppy tied to a wall
& the wind fidgeting in tightly zipped spaces
—then late sunlight like a genuflect hyphen | hurried clouds | blue | terrific
& the dreams that kept me awake…
Great post 🙂
Thank you very much. This is a whole series of poems going back months if you are interesting in going back through them. They will be ending shortly.
Damn me if I don’t instantly pinch the word for my next poem!
I’ll keep my eye out.