Kim-Chee

by Chae Sung-Sook

Cabbage kim-chee, cucumber kim-chee, radish kim-chee.

The peasant savored the peppered, pickled companion to rice.

Soaked in salt and compacted into earthen jars,
Large enough to hide a thief.

Jars dug into the snowy ground,
The harvest preserved for the dormant winter months.

Caggage kim-chee, cucumber kim-chee, radish kim-chee,
Became a pungent necessity at the emporer's banquets.

And the people, hot-headed from the red pepper,
Smelly with their pores radiating garlic,

Like Buddha, laughed, with a full belly.

Published in Orpheus.