HA:TFELT Talks Favourite Literary Works in Hankook Ilbo Interview

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“Hamlet was shocking to read as a child… I’m into pain through poetry lately” [What book are you reading? No.5 - Singer Yeeun]

Q: I heard you read a lot of books.
A: Oh, me? No, not really. I have a song called ‘Read Me’ in my last single album [MEiNE]. You must be deducing from that song title (laughs).

Q: ‘Read Me’… I’m curious about the lyrics. “I’m more complicated than you think / It’d be nice if you could read me / Show you all my pages / Opening up my sealed drawer / My baby brother born when I was 6 / Learning what anger was when I was 12 / The dread that persisted since I was 16 / My profound dream when I was 18 / What will you say in response”. It appears that you wrote deeply about the pains of growing up.
A: I’ve honed my songwriting since 2008. I’ve published about 30 songs. That’s not much. But I won’t ever be prolific since every one entails tearing away pieces of my heart. I’m inspired a lot by movies and books.

Q: Do you keep a diary? Such daily accounts can trigger ideas for lyrics.
A: I prefer reading books to writing diaries. Actually, I’ve received a lot of book gifts. My fans once asked me what kind of gifts I go for and I said I like books and music albums. They’ve sent them to me ever since. I know which ones are ‘hot’ since I get copies of the same trendy books.

Q: That’s how you discover which books to cherish, which ones become your favorites.
A: I love the graphic novel ‘Asterios Polyp’ by David Mazzucchelli. I’ve re-read it a lot recently. Shūichi Yoshida’s ‘Sundays’ and ‘Parade’ are also interesting books. There’s something very reassuring about reading beautiful depictions of everyday life.

Q: Perhaps Yeeun might be reading lots of books due to her precocious childhood.
A: Oh, it wasn’t that special. But I can vividly recall the Shakespeare books from that time. They were Shakespeare’s ‘Four Tragedies’ and Shakespeare’s ‘Five Great Comedies’, both home-reading material for children. ‘Hamlet’ was such a shock to my naive mind. I was so struck by the Ophelia character that I play-acted all her lines to myself. I prefer tragedy over comedy, and found the ‘madness’ theme particularly tantalizing. I was drawn to pathos early on.

Q: Drawn to pathos… But doesn’t it help, to view objections squarely too.
A: I try to view conflicting sides as openly as possible. My blood group is Type AB. Whenever my Type A does something, I can feel my Type B side watching keenly. Likewise, when my Type B side is talking, I can feel my Type A half listening. That’s how I see holding myself in check. They co-exist tighly.

Q: Isn’t that vigilance actually good?
A: I live very simply. I don’t mind if the taps run dry at home. I don’t mind if the lights go out. I don’t care what gets on my clothes. But I’ve become very vigilant about my work. After all, no one’s going to be more frank to myself than me. If I shirk, no one’s going to pick up after me. That’s how you get into disputes with others and believe me, I’m great at bickering. I’ll get furious about the most basic stuff. Of course, I always get the angriest at myself.

Q: You were with Wonder Girls from 2007 to 2017. So you’ve been a professional singer for over a decade.
A: I went onstage for a Christmas special (hymn) in church while in elementary school. Probably the first performance of my life, and it was a thrilling moment. Singing aloud felt so good and I knew I wanted more. But I didn’t undergo a long traineeship. I joined dance societies and music clubs in school, picked up choreography and audio editing, then started auditioning when I was 19. Looking back, all I can think of is the word ‘rollercoaster’. I went through the ups and downs, and I got to film TV dramas later on too.

Q: Transiting from your 20s into your 30s… The change must have felt premature.
A: I used to be more intense than everyone else. Very headstrong too. I was chasing my dreams very hard, but I’ve since learned how to stop, turn around and rein in my ambitions. If my 20s lacked quality of life, then I’m going to spend my 30s living a more textbook life.

Q: I’m long curious about why you chose HA:TFELT as an alias.
A: ‘Heartfelt’ means wholeheartedness, fully from the heart, to that kind of extent. On that score, it’ll be filled with ‘Hot’, so I went with ‘Hotfelt’ (HA:TFELT). The heart is the most important ethical value for me. I absolutely loath instances when everything is plainly bogus. I came across the word somewhere and immediately identified with it. My head and heart are always at odds, and it’ll invariably end up being about important issues of the heart.

Q: You must have shed a lot of tears to be this passionate.
A: I weep a lot when reading. There’s a book called ‘Read A Poem When You’re Lonely, My Daughter’. It contains a poem by Henry Rutherford Elliot. The title is ‘Laugh It Off’ and includes the verse “Don’t make tragedy of trifles / Don’t shoot butterflies with rifles”. Don’t shoot butterflies with rifles. I burst into tears when I saw that. Wow, how can I express eloquently such an idea? I’m driven to conjure up a similar phrase someday.

Q: Song lyrics and poetry share the same pedigree, so reading many poems will be very helpful.
A: I’ve become a big fan of poetry lately. I used to be more into fictional novels. The story message was always more important to me, but I feel that I’ve changed these days. When you allude to pain in a poem, even euphemistically, it seems to exude a strange sense of relief, even comfort, to the reader. Currently, I’m alternating between Lee Hae-In’s ‘It’s Always Springtime When You Fall In Love’ and ‘Window Of Joy’, reading them slowly and trying to hold on to the lingering sentiments as long as possible.

Q: You must be busy lately, but you visit bookstores often?
A: Perhaps everyone is too engrossed poring over books, but I don’t get recognized much. I tend to look for cooking and interior-design books, as if I’m shopping for clothes. But I happened to drop by a cozy small bookshop during a photoshoot in Haebangchong recently. I saw Charles Bukowski’s ‘Love Is A Dog From Hell’, and it felt like fate to me.

Q: I wonder if Yeeun’s music will change after reading Charles Bukowski’s earlier works. Aren’t you working on a new niche?
A: I’m writing about ‘Bluebird’ at the moment. A symbolic bluebird. I intended to write it like a fairy tale, but I came up with the music first. I’m running through keywords like being 30, a musician, and a woman. I want to articulate it more elegantly. I want it to be more original and vivacious. I don’t want to make it bleak, although it has a melancholic tinge. I can’t quite express it, but I know what it is when I’m by myself. I want to write healing words. That way, I can get to cultivate myself. When I’m in my 40s, maybe I can start writing essays?

Q: Definitely. The best essays are when you put your heart into them.
A: A final one (laughs). The book ‘In Spite Of Everything I Still Believe That People Are Really Good At Heart’, which is inspired by Anne Frank’s diary. The book is about someone’s experience and the following verse really hits home: “Nature, sunlight, freedom / There are always beautiful things in you / You have to know that they stay. / You have to believe that everything will help you.” How about that? Isn’t it great?

*The last book is Hyelim’s Korean translation of ‘Dear Anne Frank: Poems’ (1994) by Chilean-American poet Marjorie Agosín.

[Hankook Ilbo’s ‘What Books Are You Reading?’ series is commissioned by the Ministry Of Culture, Sports and Tourism organizing commitee as part of the ‘2018 Years of Books’ campaign. Every friday, Kim Min-Jeong (poet/literary editor/President of publisher Nanda Books) meets with celebrities from all walks of life to talk about books.]

Source: Hankook Ilbo (original article), quoxie@twitter (English translation)

Omona, what books are you reading for the summer?

Comments

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This is a really good interview, especially this part: But I won’t ever be prolific since every one entails tearing away pieces of my heart.

I finished The Bear and the Nightingale. I liked it, but I wish I hadn't started the trilogy before it's complete (the third book isn't out yet).

[carmine-pink.livejournal.com]

Shūichi Yoshida’s ‘Sundays’ and ‘Parade’ are also interesting books. There’s something very reassuring about reading beautiful depictions of everyday life.

I've read Parade and it's about everyday life indeed but the ending was anything but beautiful. It turned the whole book around and made it an unsettling read for me.

So did Hyelim translate Anne Frank's diary or a book of poems inspired by it?

I'm reading a nonfiction book, The Radium Girls by Kate Moore and not progressing through it as fast as I would like. Maybe I'll go back to fiction next. Before this I read and enjoyed People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.