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The Friends is Gone
The Friend is Gone (2019) is the video documentation of looking into the translation process between different language versions of one text - one is Korean, and the other is English. The Korean text below is what I wrote from my mother's diary, and it became the primary material for the whole Crow Series. The English version is translated not by me but by someone else. However, the consequence was terrifying. In the Korean version, there are three characters - I, crow and friend, but in the English version, only two left. Where is the friend gone?
이상한 거야
우리 집이라고 하는 곳에
엄마가 있고 아버지가 있고
그 친구가 뭘 보는 앤가 봐
들어오려 하는데
내가 못 들어오게 하려고
그 까마귀가 좀 이상해서
못 들어오게 하는데
지금 여기가 여기가 아프지 하면서탁 맞다면서
손을 막 손을 깨물고
그래서 억지로 억지로 밀어내서
그래서 푹 안아서
이빨이 척척척 있고
한 마리여서 응. 한 마리여서
봐주게 됐고
까맸고 응. 까마귀였고
It was strange indeed
Mother and Father were there,
in that place we call home
I guess it had a sixth sense or something
It kept trying to come inside
I tried to stop it
Because there was something strange about that crow
So I kept trying to stop it from coming in
"It hurts here doesn't it? Right here?" it said
As it bit my hand as it bit my hand
So I forced it away from me, I forced it
And then I held it close
It had a beak full of teeth
And it was one crow. Yes, just one crow
And I ended up taking care of it
Yes, it was black. A black crow
It became past.
The mother and father became the same.
The friend is gone.
The repetition of coming in became repetition of trying.
The friend used to be kind and knew everything.
The now is gone.
The friend covered me, but I held a crow.
The sounds of teeth are disappeared.
The reason which was small but still was there is disappeared.
The friends forgave me, and I got crow had to take care of.
The black became a crow.
All Contents © 2023 Sol Enae Lee. All Rights Reserved
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