I Am the Subway

Book excerpt: A cinematic journey through the Seoul subway that masterfully portrays the many unique lives we travel alongside whenever we take the train. A poetic translation of the bestselling Korean picture book. I rattle and clatter over the tracks. Same time, same route, every day. Carrying people from one place to another, I travel over the ground and rumble under, twice across the wide Han River. Around I go, around and around. Crowds of people wait to climb aboard. Accompanied by the constant, rumbling ba-dum ba-dum of its passage through the city, the subway has stories to tell. Between sunrise and sunset, it welcomes and farewells people, and holds them--along with their joys, hopes, fears, and memories--in its embrace.