고요 [goyo] (Korean), noun

고요 [goyo], noun. A literal translation of this Korean word would be silence or calmness. However, what seems to be missing from that direct translation would be the size of that silence or calmness. How can a word of a silence or a sense of calmness convey its immensity? Goyo brings to the listener the scene of the silence and calmness and connect her to the soundscape. That connection is not of the observer and the observed. Goyo directs her to the heart of the silence, and she is in it; when she hears goyo, she is always, already, part of that calmness. That she being part of goyo is never the part-whole relation, either. What it means to listen to goyo is the very sense that she has the full and complete awareness that she, too, makes this silence, this calmness. This awareness, in turn, puts her in a spell — a shackle that she cannot say a word, make any movement, even the slight of which would cause it to tremble. For goyo is a thick and heavy stillness, and uttering a word, making a sound in it requires her whole self. On the instant she does, though, goyo becomes airy and flies away.