The Runaway Desk
 |
Description
Book Introduction
Such a beautiful and friendly landscape
Poet Bae Jong-young, who debuted in 2014 with “Poetry Reality,” has published his third poetry collection, “The Running Desk,” as part of the Poet Village Poet Selection 266.
For poet Bae Jong-young, the world is not made up of separation and detachment, but of connection and connectivity.
For him, humans, the world, and language are not alienated or separated from each other.
They are as close as blood relatives and caress each other like lovers.
Reading Bae Jong-young's poetry, one encounters the beautiful gestures of things longing for and coveting each other, trying to blend in and mingle, as if they were objects in a lost paradise.
He is in a future that will come early, regardless of the reality of the world.
Where can you find such a beautiful and friendly landscape?
Bae Jong-young's poems cover a world that is broken, shattered, and torn, with layers of warm clothing.
Those clothes are layers of sentences that stick together without conflicting with each other on the same orbit, sharing warmth.
Poet Bae Jong-young, who debuted in 2014 with “Poetry Reality,” has published his third poetry collection, “The Running Desk,” as part of the Poet Village Poet Selection 266.
For poet Bae Jong-young, the world is not made up of separation and detachment, but of connection and connectivity.
For him, humans, the world, and language are not alienated or separated from each other.
They are as close as blood relatives and caress each other like lovers.
Reading Bae Jong-young's poetry, one encounters the beautiful gestures of things longing for and coveting each other, trying to blend in and mingle, as if they were objects in a lost paradise.
He is in a future that will come early, regardless of the reality of the world.
Where can you find such a beautiful and friendly landscape?
Bae Jong-young's poems cover a world that is broken, shattered, and torn, with layers of warm clothing.
Those clothes are layers of sentences that stick together without conflicting with each other on the same orbit, sharing warmth.
index
Part 1
Agreement 13/Two-door type (兩門型) Spring 14/Turned the corner together 16/Seed marks 18/Peony or peony 20/Smoke is the arrow of the wind 22/When looking for a house 24/Anxious ears 25/Hunting 26/Fox rain 28/Feather 30/Cotton 32/Guess 34/Sunny side 36
Part 2
The Tongue is Slower Than the Ear 39/Worrying 40/The Running Desk 42/The Flowery Floor 44/Things That Gather 46/How to Store Fire 48/The North 50/The Age of the Desert 51/The Empty Lighthouse 52/The Waterline 54/The Lighthouses 56/The Lighthouse Repair Shop 59/The Orbit 60/Signs 62
Part 3
Circumstances 65/Yunseul 66/Wandering sleep 68/Tathagata Buddha 70/The tree hides fire within its body 72/Adverbs 73/Layers of words 76/Abandoned temple site 78/Sea level 80/Prone cow 83/Around the time of the ascent 84/Time without people 86/Towage 88/A lonely job 90
Part 4
93/Preface 94/Calling a Wall a Door 96/Neglect, or Poetry 98/Shady Shell 100/Good Footprints 102/The Shadow of a Horse 104/The Snare 106/The Persimmon Tree is Tall 107/Soap Box 108/Thin Ice 110/Washing 112/The Job of a Tree 114/Wings 116
Commentary by Oh Min-seok (literary critic, professor emeritus at Dankook University) 117
Agreement 13/Two-door type (兩門型) Spring 14/Turned the corner together 16/Seed marks 18/Peony or peony 20/Smoke is the arrow of the wind 22/When looking for a house 24/Anxious ears 25/Hunting 26/Fox rain 28/Feather 30/Cotton 32/Guess 34/Sunny side 36
Part 2
The Tongue is Slower Than the Ear 39/Worrying 40/The Running Desk 42/The Flowery Floor 44/Things That Gather 46/How to Store Fire 48/The North 50/The Age of the Desert 51/The Empty Lighthouse 52/The Waterline 54/The Lighthouses 56/The Lighthouse Repair Shop 59/The Orbit 60/Signs 62
Part 3
Circumstances 65/Yunseul 66/Wandering sleep 68/Tathagata Buddha 70/The tree hides fire within its body 72/Adverbs 73/Layers of words 76/Abandoned temple site 78/Sea level 80/Prone cow 83/Around the time of the ascent 84/Time without people 86/Towage 88/A lonely job 90
Part 4
93/Preface 94/Calling a Wall a Door 96/Neglect, or Poetry 98/Shady Shell 100/Good Footprints 102/The Shadow of a Horse 104/The Snare 106/The Persimmon Tree is Tall 107/Soap Box 108/Thin Ice 110/Washing 112/The Job of a Tree 114/Wings 116
Commentary by Oh Min-seok (literary critic, professor emeritus at Dankook University) 117
Into the book
An old man, who has just recovered from a long illness, is sitting on a sunny bench.
He sits looking into the distance and fiddles with his hands alternately.
Over the past winter, the old man had clutched death in the air with those hands several times.
Those two hands
I've been cursed at, I've been cursed at,
Fiddle with it.
As if holding the hands of a beloved blood relative, two hands comforting each other as if unable to let go of each other out of pity, the sunlight grows thicker, and the tired sleep deepens as if kneading dough, and the old man touches the sunlight that fills both hands. The hands that were holding the thick shade that was spreading dimly, a new sprout faintly sprouts on the loose palm.
Just be like today.
The sunlight is so gentle,
Just a mess.
--- From "The Sunny Side"
Teaching Hangul to a child who has passed the age of one year.
If you sing the 'flower' on the keyboard,
The child imitates by saying 'Kkom'.
If I laugh and say 'Kkom' again
The child said that wasn't it
Laugh out loud.
The mouth that just turned one is busy.
I have to have a mouthful of the title of mom
You have to swallow delicious things often
Also, I have to cry often,
So the tongue is slower than the ear.
A child learns language by ear.
Words stay in the ears for a moment and then go to the mouth.
Poor pronunciation,
That's the tongue
It is a gesture of giving in to the whole body.
--- From "The tongue is slower than the ear"
Desks are often used as tools to find the exit after wandering through an uncertain maze, but there are many desks in the world that are famous for something different.
This is the case for desks engraved with signatures resembling mustaches, saluting poses, or those used in armistice agreements, or for honorary plaques to show off one's achievements.
Among the few desks I've been to,
There are desks that have pulled out their own nails and run away.
Some were very patient
Most of them were hasty and lazy.
When I was young and lost in a delusion for a long time, the desk ran away from me, unable to bear it anymore.
I thought I had thrown the desk, but it turned out that the desk had abandoned me and run away.
The desk I trusted for so long is gone now
A new desk was placed.
It's a desk that's a little fat and stubborn about staying in place.
Like a cow's back and the sunset in the evening
It's a very reliable desk.
I want to wear down under your thinking elbows,
I know that heart that ran away.
Now is the day I can escape from my desk
It is to wait quietly.
--- From "The Running Desk"
That is extreme camaraderie.
No matter what road, no matter what shoulder it breaks on
The tow truck is coming.
Like dragging a wounded comrade out of the battlefield
Wherever it is, they come running.
Pick up the sparks that haven't been extinguished in the chaos and put them in
Run on high alert with your emergency lights flashing.
Sometimes, it sutures the broken wounds
And sometimes, it rekindles the wick that has been fading away.
Hanging on the tail of a crumpled cloud of reverse driving
Somewhere in the galaxy
The garden of regeneration, where blue flames bloom and fall like stars,
And then there's some noise mixed in there
Run towards contact.
One day, I was towing a truck down a mountain road that was running low on fuel.
Like a dark evening
As if he was pushing his back through the gap of the commotion
That utmost sincerity that sticks its butt out,
At the scene of the shipwreck, at a loss
It is the ultimate altruism that pulls you out of your predicament.
Overcoming the bumps of the day
Another dark evening comes.
--- From "Tow"
Washing your face, the start of the day
It's about opening a closed face.
It's water that I scooped up neatly with both hands
The water must be crumpled soon before it can be used to wash your face.
Nothing can be crumpled without
It cannot be spread out clearly and straight.
Meanwhile, as the green of summer tires out to become autumn,
To be crumpled means to wait for the time to unfold.
Washing your face clears up your dull face
The work of neatly combing smiles,
That's why the washbasin that has been used for a long time is wrinkled here and there.
A bitter expression from a hard day,
Or the aftereffects of a forced smile or a secretly hidden insult
I bet the washbasin was crumpled like that.
The water that wets my face remembers my wrinkled face.
The tears that wash away the wounded heart are also welling up and crumpled.
When I look at my face in the mirror after washing my face,
It resembles the expression of water.
On a face washed with water that has been crumpled for a long time
This may be the reason for the ridged wrinkles.
He sits looking into the distance and fiddles with his hands alternately.
Over the past winter, the old man had clutched death in the air with those hands several times.
Those two hands
I've been cursed at, I've been cursed at,
Fiddle with it.
As if holding the hands of a beloved blood relative, two hands comforting each other as if unable to let go of each other out of pity, the sunlight grows thicker, and the tired sleep deepens as if kneading dough, and the old man touches the sunlight that fills both hands. The hands that were holding the thick shade that was spreading dimly, a new sprout faintly sprouts on the loose palm.
Just be like today.
The sunlight is so gentle,
Just a mess.
--- From "The Sunny Side"
Teaching Hangul to a child who has passed the age of one year.
If you sing the 'flower' on the keyboard,
The child imitates by saying 'Kkom'.
If I laugh and say 'Kkom' again
The child said that wasn't it
Laugh out loud.
The mouth that just turned one is busy.
I have to have a mouthful of the title of mom
You have to swallow delicious things often
Also, I have to cry often,
So the tongue is slower than the ear.
A child learns language by ear.
Words stay in the ears for a moment and then go to the mouth.
Poor pronunciation,
That's the tongue
It is a gesture of giving in to the whole body.
--- From "The tongue is slower than the ear"
Desks are often used as tools to find the exit after wandering through an uncertain maze, but there are many desks in the world that are famous for something different.
This is the case for desks engraved with signatures resembling mustaches, saluting poses, or those used in armistice agreements, or for honorary plaques to show off one's achievements.
Among the few desks I've been to,
There are desks that have pulled out their own nails and run away.
Some were very patient
Most of them were hasty and lazy.
When I was young and lost in a delusion for a long time, the desk ran away from me, unable to bear it anymore.
I thought I had thrown the desk, but it turned out that the desk had abandoned me and run away.
The desk I trusted for so long is gone now
A new desk was placed.
It's a desk that's a little fat and stubborn about staying in place.
Like a cow's back and the sunset in the evening
It's a very reliable desk.
I want to wear down under your thinking elbows,
I know that heart that ran away.
Now is the day I can escape from my desk
It is to wait quietly.
--- From "The Running Desk"
That is extreme camaraderie.
No matter what road, no matter what shoulder it breaks on
The tow truck is coming.
Like dragging a wounded comrade out of the battlefield
Wherever it is, they come running.
Pick up the sparks that haven't been extinguished in the chaos and put them in
Run on high alert with your emergency lights flashing.
Sometimes, it sutures the broken wounds
And sometimes, it rekindles the wick that has been fading away.
Hanging on the tail of a crumpled cloud of reverse driving
Somewhere in the galaxy
The garden of regeneration, where blue flames bloom and fall like stars,
And then there's some noise mixed in there
Run towards contact.
One day, I was towing a truck down a mountain road that was running low on fuel.
Like a dark evening
As if he was pushing his back through the gap of the commotion
That utmost sincerity that sticks its butt out,
At the scene of the shipwreck, at a loss
It is the ultimate altruism that pulls you out of your predicament.
Overcoming the bumps of the day
Another dark evening comes.
--- From "Tow"
Washing your face, the start of the day
It's about opening a closed face.
It's water that I scooped up neatly with both hands
The water must be crumpled soon before it can be used to wash your face.
Nothing can be crumpled without
It cannot be spread out clearly and straight.
Meanwhile, as the green of summer tires out to become autumn,
To be crumpled means to wait for the time to unfold.
Washing your face clears up your dull face
The work of neatly combing smiles,
That's why the washbasin that has been used for a long time is wrinkled here and there.
A bitter expression from a hard day,
Or the aftereffects of a forced smile or a secretly hidden insult
I bet the washbasin was crumpled like that.
The water that wets my face remembers my wrinkled face.
The tears that wash away the wounded heart are also welling up and crumpled.
When I look at my face in the mirror after washing my face,
It resembles the expression of water.
On a face washed with water that has been crumpled for a long time
This may be the reason for the ridged wrinkles.
--- From "Washing"
Publisher's Review
There was a world where humans, the world, and language were well-connected.
In that distant mythical age, humans and the world were integrated, and the logic of the world and humans was one.
Starlight was a text that read the fate of humanity, and all languages lived like magic, connecting humanity and the world.
Birds moved according to the movement of the wind, and by observing the movements of birds, humans heard news from the universe.
But this era of perfect integration, this beautiful world of totality, has been shattered since the modern era.
Man has become increasingly alienated from himself and from the world, and his language and the language of things have become alien languages to each other.
No one has ever looked into the heart of a tree, or perceived the smile of the moon.
Humans struggle not only with the divided world but also with other selves within themselves.
The world became increasingly unfamiliar, and everything in existence spoke in an unknown dialect.
If one of the many symptoms of world literature since modernism could be called 'neurosis,' it was precisely because of this environment of utter alienation and discord.
This symptom has spread not only to literature but also to all genres of art, including painting, music, and film, and it has become very difficult to read a consistent code that runs through today's art except for the code of 'neurosis.'
If you look at the empty back of a camel
Leave your luggage somewhere and relax
It's like the way back.
I walk with a leisurely pace, my ankles resting on the empty back.
Finally, in the night sky, there was an early evening moon with its hollow back empty.
I'm going to pick up the full moon, which is around the 15th day.
So, that empty back that has become loose,
It's just a space left empty for another load.
…(syncopation)…
If the way back is a road where camels and people both leave behind
The road that I have been going back and forth on without knowing it
It doesn't seem like it's necessarily a difficult road.
All roads rest when it gets dark
Moonlight on an empty back,
The night is a comfortable shelter where camels lie down.
Even on the back of the moon, which is tired from carrying the full moon,
There are dark calluses.
- The "empty back" part
The appeal of this poem is not in its message.
The fascination of this poem lies in the discovery of a common code that runs through the camel, the moon, and human life.
How ingenious is the imagination of gliding from the camel's "empty back" to the "hollow evening moon."
With this momentary shift of gaze, the camel and the moon become intimately connected, orbiting each other.
The camel is walking with a heavy load off its back, and the early evening moon, which is looking down at it, is now “going to carry the full moon,” forming a close kinship between these two unfamiliar and different beings.
Just like brothers in the same industry, when the empty back of the early evening moon passes the full moon, the empty back of the camel will soon go back to carrying a heavy load.
The poet even brings human destiny into this intimate orbit.
The expression “whether it’s a camel or a person, the way back is a way to put down and go” is exactly that.
These are all beings with the same destiny, following the same path, so they are not alienated from themselves, the world, or anywhere else.
They are very familiar with each other, like my own body.
The “calluses” that developed from carrying heavy loads are equally etched on the backs of the moon, camels, and humans, just like the members of ancient farming communities.
Post-modern subjects often fail to remember that the world originally possessed such a beautiful and intimate landscape of intimacy.
The poet brings warmth and comfort to the barren, desert-like night by recalling a landscape that has now become almost a myth as if nothing had happened.
A landscape where the grammar “All roads rest when it gets dark/Moonlight on empty backs/The night is a comfortable cage where camels’ backs lie down” is in operation is the place where those who are tired of division, alienation, conflict, and discord truly want to return.
- Oh Min-seok (literary critic, professor emeritus at Dankook University)
The poet's prose
I'm sorry for getting excited so much, so I'll just leave the song I haven't finished singing yet.
The voices filled with affection are all low and round, so even if they fall and roll around somewhere in the forest, they will still be fine.
I'm willing to become darkness for you, the clear one.
There was a time when we laughed because the sun rose in the east and cried because the sun set in the west.
The horizon just seemed like a jumble of pain.
Before we know it, the thin sunlight of early autumn mixes between the thin green leaves.
Even the stone wall, which has stood strong against the strong typhoon, has a gap. Like a dandelion, I will place a chair in the gap and look up at the sky.
Poet's words
I searched through the dirt and barely found it
With a stroke of virtue
I became a poet.
The water that accumulates on the ground after the rain
Even from the wheel marks on the flat snow
I wanted to hear some harsh words
The desk kept trying to run away.
The third bare face is shown.
There are probably a few more wrinkles in the psalms.
As it was in the beginning, now is, always and forever,
I dedicate this book to Veronica and her grandson Junwoo.
November 2025
Bae Jong-young
In that distant mythical age, humans and the world were integrated, and the logic of the world and humans was one.
Starlight was a text that read the fate of humanity, and all languages lived like magic, connecting humanity and the world.
Birds moved according to the movement of the wind, and by observing the movements of birds, humans heard news from the universe.
But this era of perfect integration, this beautiful world of totality, has been shattered since the modern era.
Man has become increasingly alienated from himself and from the world, and his language and the language of things have become alien languages to each other.
No one has ever looked into the heart of a tree, or perceived the smile of the moon.
Humans struggle not only with the divided world but also with other selves within themselves.
The world became increasingly unfamiliar, and everything in existence spoke in an unknown dialect.
If one of the many symptoms of world literature since modernism could be called 'neurosis,' it was precisely because of this environment of utter alienation and discord.
This symptom has spread not only to literature but also to all genres of art, including painting, music, and film, and it has become very difficult to read a consistent code that runs through today's art except for the code of 'neurosis.'
If you look at the empty back of a camel
Leave your luggage somewhere and relax
It's like the way back.
I walk with a leisurely pace, my ankles resting on the empty back.
Finally, in the night sky, there was an early evening moon with its hollow back empty.
I'm going to pick up the full moon, which is around the 15th day.
So, that empty back that has become loose,
It's just a space left empty for another load.
…(syncopation)…
If the way back is a road where camels and people both leave behind
The road that I have been going back and forth on without knowing it
It doesn't seem like it's necessarily a difficult road.
All roads rest when it gets dark
Moonlight on an empty back,
The night is a comfortable shelter where camels lie down.
Even on the back of the moon, which is tired from carrying the full moon,
There are dark calluses.
- The "empty back" part
The appeal of this poem is not in its message.
The fascination of this poem lies in the discovery of a common code that runs through the camel, the moon, and human life.
How ingenious is the imagination of gliding from the camel's "empty back" to the "hollow evening moon."
With this momentary shift of gaze, the camel and the moon become intimately connected, orbiting each other.
The camel is walking with a heavy load off its back, and the early evening moon, which is looking down at it, is now “going to carry the full moon,” forming a close kinship between these two unfamiliar and different beings.
Just like brothers in the same industry, when the empty back of the early evening moon passes the full moon, the empty back of the camel will soon go back to carrying a heavy load.
The poet even brings human destiny into this intimate orbit.
The expression “whether it’s a camel or a person, the way back is a way to put down and go” is exactly that.
These are all beings with the same destiny, following the same path, so they are not alienated from themselves, the world, or anywhere else.
They are very familiar with each other, like my own body.
The “calluses” that developed from carrying heavy loads are equally etched on the backs of the moon, camels, and humans, just like the members of ancient farming communities.
Post-modern subjects often fail to remember that the world originally possessed such a beautiful and intimate landscape of intimacy.
The poet brings warmth and comfort to the barren, desert-like night by recalling a landscape that has now become almost a myth as if nothing had happened.
A landscape where the grammar “All roads rest when it gets dark/Moonlight on empty backs/The night is a comfortable cage where camels’ backs lie down” is in operation is the place where those who are tired of division, alienation, conflict, and discord truly want to return.
- Oh Min-seok (literary critic, professor emeritus at Dankook University)
The poet's prose
I'm sorry for getting excited so much, so I'll just leave the song I haven't finished singing yet.
The voices filled with affection are all low and round, so even if they fall and roll around somewhere in the forest, they will still be fine.
I'm willing to become darkness for you, the clear one.
There was a time when we laughed because the sun rose in the east and cried because the sun set in the west.
The horizon just seemed like a jumble of pain.
Before we know it, the thin sunlight of early autumn mixes between the thin green leaves.
Even the stone wall, which has stood strong against the strong typhoon, has a gap. Like a dandelion, I will place a chair in the gap and look up at the sky.
Poet's words
I searched through the dirt and barely found it
With a stroke of virtue
I became a poet.
The water that accumulates on the ground after the rain
Even from the wheel marks on the flat snow
I wanted to hear some harsh words
The desk kept trying to run away.
The third bare face is shown.
There are probably a few more wrinkles in the psalms.
As it was in the beginning, now is, always and forever,
I dedicate this book to Veronica and her grandson Junwoo.
November 2025
Bae Jong-young
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of issue: November 24, 2025
- Page count, weight, size: 132 pages | 125*204*8mm
- ISBN13: 9791158967239
- ISBN10: 1158967233
You may also like
카테고리
korean
korean
![ELLE 엘르 스페셜 에디션 A형 : 12월 [2025]](http://librairie.coreenne.fr/cdn/shop/files/b8e27a3de6c9538896439686c6b0e8fb.jpg?v=1766436872&width=3840)
