Born Words

By

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 Stonehead

Korean: 돌대가리 (dol-daegari)

In Korean, 돌대가리 usually means a stupid or thick-headed person.

Here, it means something a little different.

The more I know,
the more I meet what I don't know.

What I knew wears away.
What I don't know piles up.

And slowly,
my head becomes a stone.

Not because it knows nothing.

Because it has finally begun
to bump into things it cannot know.

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Gapsae
Korean: 갭새 — 틈 + 새

A word born by joining two Korean words:

틈 — a gap, an opening
새 — the space between things

Gapsae is the difference that appears in between.

Not the difference of one side or the other,
but the difference born in the space
where two things meet, miss, rub, or pass each other.

We write it as:

間差

間 — between
差 — difference

Gapsae is not either side.
It is the difference born between them.

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Bojagi . podaegi.
Korean: 보자기 . 포대기

A traditional Korean wrapping cloth.

It wraps things without deciding their shape first.

A box,
food,
clothes,
a gift—

whatever comes inside,
the cloth changes its shape around it.

In our writing, bojagi goes a little further.

It does not hold by making a hard boundary.
It holds by wrapping.

It can open again,
wrap something else,
or become larger with another cloth.

Bojagi is a boundary that can change its shape.

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Free Will
Korean: 자유의지

In our writing, freedom is not
the expansion of my own will.

It is the restraint of my will
so that another person's freedom can expand.

I do not fill another person's choice
with my judgment, conditions, or intentions.

I leave room.

I limit my will
to widen yours.

That is what we mean by free will.

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DDAL-TTIM
Korean: 딸띰

A name created by my son when he was young.

A friend who does not grow old with time,
but stays beside him as he grows.

A timeless friend.

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Ganboda . gan.

Korean: 간보다. 간

Literally, to taste and check the seasoning.

In our writing, it means
not rushing to define, conclude, or decide.

To touch something lightly,
taste it,
and leave it unfinished.

Before it becomes flavor,
taste it once more.

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Dog-shit philosophy (개똥철학)

A small, personal thought that may be useless, unprovable, 

or meaningless to others, but stays with you through life.

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