“The Milky Way of the seas”
Winter in Sokcho“The Milky Way of the seas” names the striking night-time transformation of the fishing fleet off Sokcho: lights used to lure squid become, in the narrator’s view, a galaxy moving out across the sea. The image arises from repeated evenings at the port, where practical labor and vast darkness briefly meet in a spectacle of light.
The Image and Its Setting
After three slow days, the narrator walks down to the port each evening while Yan Kerrand remains in his room. At the jetty, fishermen prepare their boats for squid fishing. They adjust their waterproof clothing against the wind, board a fleet of twenty-four boats, and switch on bulbs strung along cables from stem to stern. The lights are working equipment, designed to draw molluscs toward the boats; once illuminated together, they also transform the harbor’s edge into a field of distant points of light.
The Nightly Procession
The narrator walks to the pagoda at the end of the jetty and watches the fishermen cast off. Sea spray leaves salt on the narrator’s cheeks, while the air carries a taste of iron. Against this bodily, maritime setting, the boats move slowly away from shore, their lights twinkling as they travel out to sea. The narrator calls their departure “the Milky Way of the seas,” making the fleet’s stately movement resemble a celestial procession without losing sight of its ordinary purpose: the fishermen are going to work.
Narrative Significance
The expression gathers the passage’s contrast between labor and wonder into one image. The lights are deliberate lures, strung across boats and switched on for a catch; from the jetty, however, their gradual movement makes them appear like a galaxy traversing the water. The narrator’s repeated evening walks give the scene a quiet ritual, while the fleet’s departure carries the gaze outward into darkness. In a passage marked by slowly passing time, the phrase makes a brief spectacle out of a recurring departure.
