This is now LKL’s fifth annual post that looks at the literature and fiction titles we’re looking forward to over the coming twelve months. Since last year we’ve made things easier for ourselves by investing some time building a book database that aims to catalogue all physical publications of Korean literature in translation, as well … [Read More]
Author: Ko Un (고은 1933-)
Selected publications by Ko Un
- Ten Thousand Lives: Maninbo, Volumes 21–25 tr Brother Anthony of Taizé, Lee Sang-wha, Green Integer 2021
- Poems by Ko Un (K-Poet 01) tr Brother Anthony of Taizé, Lee Sang-wha, Asia Publishers 2017
- Maninbo: Peace & War tr Brother Anthony of Taizé, Lee Sang-wha, Bloodaxe 2015
- First Person Sorrowful tr Brother Anthony of Taizé, Lee Sang-wha, Bloodaxe 2012
- Himalaya Poems tr Brother Anthony of Taizé, Lee Sang-wha, Green Integer 2011
- ChaRyong’s Kiss (차령이 뽀뽀) tr Brother Anthony of Taizé, Lee Sang-wha, Bawoosol 2011
- Songs for Tomorrow: A Collection of Poems 1960-2002 tr Brother Anthony of Taizé, Gary Gach, Kim Young-moo, Green Integer 2010
- What?: 108 ZEN Poems tr Brother Anthony of Taizé, Kim Young-moo, Parallax 2008
- Flowers of a Moment tr Brother Anthony of Taizé, Gary Gach, Kim Young-moo, BOA Editions 2006
- Abiding Places, Korea South & North tr Hillel Schwartz, Sunny Jung, Tupelo Press 2006
- The Three Way Tavern tr Clare You, Richard Silberg, University of California Press 2006
- Ten Thousand Lives tr Brother Anthony of Taizé, Gary Gach, Kim Young-moo, Green Integer 2006
- Little Pilgrim ( 화엄경, 1991) tr Brother Anthony of Taizé, Kim Young-moo, Parallax 2005
- Traveler Maps tr David R McCann, Tamal Vista 2004
- Beyond Self: 108 Korean Zen Poems tr Brother Anthony of Taizé, Kim Young-moo, Parallax 1997
- The Sound of My Waves (나의 파도소리) tr Brother Anthony of Taizé, Kim Young-moo, Cornell East Asia Series 1996
Gwangju, 40 years on
Brother Anthony is using the time of social distancing to good effect, updating his website with many valuable materials. In readiness for the 40th anniversary of the Gwangju uprising, he has “translated some poems about the victims in Gwangju, written by a poet whose work nobody dares publish” any more. You can find these on … [Read More]
A Poetry Evening with Ko Un and Brother Anthony
Ko Un is paying one of his regular visits to the UK in July, with a reading at the KCC on 15 July which follows his appearance at the Ledbury Poetry Festival: A Poetry Evening with Ko Un Ko Un with Brother Anthony of Taizé reading in Korean and English Wednesday 15 July 2015, 7pm … [Read More]
Ko Un and Brother Anthony at the Ledbury Poetry Festival
Ko Un will be appearing at the Ledbury Poetry Festival with Brother Anthony this month, before coming to London: Ko Un and Brother Anthony 12 July 2015, 4.15pm–5.15pm Burgage Hall | Church Lane | Ledbury | Herefordshire HR8 1DW Box office 01531 636 232 | £9 Andrew Motion, in his introduction to First Person Sorrowful, … [Read More]
Published this month: Ko Un’s Maninbo, from Bloodaxe
Bloodaxe Books, who last year brought us Kim Hyesoon’s I’m OK, I’m Pig!, and who brought us Ko Un’s moving First Person Sorrowful in 2012 continue their support for Korean poetry in translation by bringing us a selection from Ko Un’s magnum opus, Ten Thousand Lives. Once again Brother Anthony and Lee Sang-Wha are the … [Read More]
Friday Late at the V&A – a fun evening of cultural collision
Are the British becoming more Korean? That was the rather silly thought that occurred to me as I walked round the energetic space of the V&A yesterday evening for the Korea Friday Late. What do I mean by that? Well, at every expo or festival in Korea the emphasis is on physical experience. You can’t … [Read More]
Friday Late at the V&A: the final programme
The Korean Friday Late at the V&A promises to be both lively and interesting. Details have been emerging over the last couple of weeks, and their press release at www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/f/friday-late/ is now final. Below is the text, expanded in places with LKL’s commentary in italics and images from our archives. Friday Late: Korea 30 May … [Read More]
A Poem I Didn’t Name: Ko Un on the Sewol tragedy
In this month’s edition of Words Without Borders, a translation by Brother Anthony of Taizé and Lee Sang-Wha of a new poem by Ko Un on the Korean ferry disaster. Here’s one stanza: A floodtide of sorrow has risen in every corner of this country, everyone feeling indignant, fists clenched. Not only anger, not only … [Read More]
Radio 4 to feature Ko Un
News of an upcoming feature on Radio 4: Ko Un: The People’s Poet of Korea Sunday 29 December, 4:30pm, Radio 4 In South Korea, former Zen monk Ko Un is revered as a pro-democracy activist and the people’s poet. To mark his 80th birthday, Mike Greenwood explores his prolific output, in particular his epic masterwork, … [Read More]
Ko Un featured in the Guardian
Korean poetry in translation isn’t much featured on the web anywhere, so when a major UK broadsheet features Ko Un, Korea’s most famous poet, together with his Cornish translator Brother Anthony, it is a cause for celebration. The Guardian has a nice piece on his appearance at the Aldeburgh poetry festival (3-4 November), which is … [Read More]
Ko Un: Poet in the City — Korea’s greatest living poet in East Anglia, London and Oxford
A rare appearance in the UK of the poet who has come closest to winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, but never quite made it. Ko Un will be appearing at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival on 3-4 November, in London on 5 November, Oxford on 6 November and Cambridge on 8 November. (Could he be … [Read More]
Huffington Post on hip-hop’s 19th century origins
Interesting piece by John R Eperjesi in the Huffington Post: Korean Beat Attitudes: Rainhat Poet and Ko Un – a feature on Kim Sakkat (김삿갓) (real name, Kim Byeong-yeon 김병연), the character at the centre of Yi Mun-yol’s book The Poet. [Read More]
A meeting with Brother Anthony
LKL talks to Brother Anthony on poetry, tea, temple stays and romanisation Wednesday 22 July 2009 On the twelfth floor of an anonymous building in the Sincheon area of Seoul there’s an overcrowded study. From a cassette player in the corner wafts the soothing sounds of kayageum and daegeum sanjo. Books line every available inch … [Read More]
Korea’s least-known best films?
Mark Morris from Cambridge University’s Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies discusses two films shown at the Barbican on Sunday. The International Buddhist Film Festival (IBFF) chose the Barbican Centre for its venue between 7-17 May. Two remarkable Korean films stood out among an eclectic mix of documentary and narrative films. The 1949 Hometown … [Read More]
Leading Korean poet comes to London
Ko Un (고은), one of Korea’s most prominent living poets, will be giving his first ever UK poetry reading at the Korean Cultural Centre, London on Tuesday, 29 April at 7.00-8.30pm. “It is very striking to see the kind of tuning fork [Ko Un] has been, re-inventing himself in every decade through the turns in … [Read More]
Che in Verse launched
Loyal readers who have followed this site from its early months may recall a question posed by a visitor about a year ago. Gavin O’Toole was working on assembling a compilation of poems from around the world about the great revolutionary Che Guevara. He’d heard that there was a couple of poems about him by … [Read More]