Park MyungJa

76y, Busan

​

"If I've lived this long
Without asking others for favors
Or making pitiful sounds
That should be enough, right?"

October 2022

In the International Market
In a narrow alley of miscellaneous goods where more shutters are closed
On a small street stall barely a pyeong wide
With just an old Brother sewing machine
Making anything that can be sewn
No matter what anyone brings

Ms. Park Myung-ja

Who, as a child, worked as a housemaid
And married a peddler
Who came to sell American goods to her employer's house

After living for about ten years

Her husband suddenly said he was boarding a ship
And then suddenly sent him somewhere unknown in that vast sea

She raised two children with her dressmaking skills
And now lives alone

With infrequent contact with her children who left for distant places long ago

She, with unusually many wrinkles etched on her hands
Is just so happy when customers her children's age come
That she often doesn't even charge the full amount, they say.

On her floor mat, which she said was changed not long ago
I embroidered her name, which she readily offered

With the sewing that
For a long time together
Raised her and her children

In shimmering
Golden thread