[57th Modern Korean Literature Translation Awards] Kevin O'Rourke Award: Giraffe Is the Name of the World

Written by Danyao Translated by Ku Bon-seung Excerpt from 'Giraffe Is the Name of the World' The story I am about to tell is of the Giraffe, and also of myself. If I were asked to name the animals familiar to me, would name the meerkat that swivels its head this way and that from behind a rock, and the hyena whose eyes curve into a grin when it opens its mouth to tear at its prey, and the jackal whose ears and face and thighs and tail and every part of its body are triangles. And if I were to name the animals unfamiliar to me, I would recite the memory of slipping quietly past the shadows of lion and rhinoceros and hippopotamus. As for the plants, I would call to mind the acacia that spreads its branches like the cap of a mushroom, and the ebony blacker than the night sky, and the gloriosa flower that soars as though aflame. Should you wish for something more amusing, I would tell you that the baobab's branches are stunted, as though a great weight had pressed them down, because the tree grew its thick trunk upward without knowing how low...