Twofold Song
By Yi Mun-yol
(Hollym)

A couple is sitting on a bench on a cool autumn day. They have been having an affair for the last three years, and have just decided to end the relationship. It is their last day together, but each gives it a different meaning and a reason.

Author Yi’s novella “Twofold Song” incisively explores the contradictions of our lives, through what seems like a typical case of illicit love. Yet Yi uses the term “twofoldness” to describe the dual sides of their three-year affair, which is surprisingly comparable to our flawed human lives. 

For the two, the affair has been a lot of two things at the same time ― meaningful and meaningless; physical and platonic; joyous and painful; and bliss and curse.

The man and woman recall their three-year relationship differently. When the man speaks of snow, the woman comes up with sunlight. Their “twofold” songs of the shared past therefore do not create a harmony, leaving the two with their own versions of the memories before parting ways for good. And this is a deeply nuanced answer to the first three sentences of this fiction, which goes: Life is loneliness. Or it is not loneliness. Why should it not be loneliness?

Filled with Yi’s poetic prose and epic metaphors, the novel deftly delves into the complexities and contradictions of our lives, that create those strange, sad, bizarre moments that make us into who we are.

Born in Yeongyang County in North Gyeongsang Province in 1948, Yi studied Korean language education at Seoul National University. He won numerous awards for his literary works, including the Ho-Am Prize in the Arts and Yi Sang Literary Award. The English-language translation of his 1982 novella, “An Anonymous Island” was published in the New Yorker’s September issue this year.

(dyc@heraldcorp.com)