Full Description
This is the first English translation of selected poems by one of the most important and unusual modern poets of South Korea. In contrast to the strident political protests found in the poetry of many of his contemporaries, Pak Chaesam's work is characterized by intimate portraits of place, nature, childhood, and human relationships, and by indirection, nostalgia, and reflectiveness. Often focused upon the border of this world and some other, Pak writes with a spareness of presentation but a cornucopia of imagery, meticulously exploring objective and subjective realms of existence and memory. Encouraging the reader to see and listen, and to allow the sensory to reshape the analytical, Pak's poetry opens up new realms of experience. A fellow Korean poet described Pak's poetry as being "the most exquisite expression of the Korean sense of han," or melancholy.
Contents
Acknowledgments xi Introduction xiii Soaring Dragon Waterfall 3 Han 5 Sound of the Taffy Seller's Shears 7 Landscape 9 Thousand-Year Wind 11 From the Song of a Celebrated Singer 13 A Path of a Heavenly Maiden 15 Autumn River in Burning Tears 17 Some Day, Some Month 19 As Summer Goes and Autumn Comes 21 Landscape Painter 23 Enough to Say It's Far 25 In the Wind 27 Waking Alone at Dawn 29 Spring's Pathway 31 News from Home 33 Immortals' Paduk Game 35 Untitled 37 Night at Tonghak Temple 39 Seeing the Ferry 41 My First Love 43 In an Empty Courtyard 45 Nothing 47 Seeing the Fresh Green 49 The Feeling of the Gingko 51 Recollection 13 53 Spring Path 55 The Road Back 57 New Arirang 59 Looking at Winter Trees 61 Spring Riverside 63 By the Night Sea 65 Having a Drink 67 Poplar 69 Friend, You Have Gone 71 My Poem 73 At the River 75 Recollection 18 77 Recollection 29 79 I Know the Heart of the Wildgoose 81 Without Title 83 On a Rainy Day 85 Tree 87 Autumn Sea 89 Flowers on a Dead Tree 91 Song of Death 93 Diary in Summer Heat 95 Flowers May Bloom 97 Four-Line Poems 99 1 Brightness 99 2 With One Head 101 3 Place 103 4 A Song 105 Baby's Foot on My Brow 107 Asking Not Understanding 109 What You Sent Me 111 P'iri Hole 113 Days and Months 115 Parenthetical 117 Before the Wind 119 What I Learned from the Sea 121 Looking at the Sunlight 123 Shimmering 125 Small Song 127 Stars 129 By the Mountain 131 As for Love 133 After an Illness 135 Going to the Mountain 137 Place Where I Look at Islands 139 Recollection 16 141 Autumn Coming 143 A Night When Sleep Is Far 145 Translators' Epilogue 147
