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Nothing really happens in this city: A bad joke (2024)
An excerpt from the poem '봄날은 간다' (possible translation - 'Farewell to Spring') by Soyeon Kim was translated into English, handwritten on a torn piece of paper and left in the trash bin of the 5th house on the street where I am staying.
Having pondered deeply beneath the ground
I mustered the curiosity to raise my gaze
to the vacant sky above
How mundane it must be
for one to shake off the season without much fuss
anyone will do, to give away
the five petaled flower to those adorned with feathers
Additionally, five balloons—four filled with helium gas and one blown up using my mouth—were left in the bin. On the mouth-blown balloon, a short note that says ‘a good joke’ was written.
Fearing getting caught in the act, I left immediately after placing (or pouring to be precise-as the balloons were kept in a bag to prevent them from flying away) all the jokes in the bin.
The bin was revisited the next day. Fortunately, the owner of the 5th was leaving at the time I arrived, allowing me to check the bin with ease.
However, unlike my expectation, for some reason the balloons were still there, stuck at the bottom of the bin, having lost their ability to float. Witnessing the failure of the joke marked the end of this performance.