A Time When I So Loved Someone

A large body of the poems in Lee Byung Ryul’s book is comprised of accounts of his own tangible life story, or his observation of other’s experience. He writes about things of deep concern to him–the love relationship between him and his beloved, trips abroad, friendship and enmity, a natural object like a persimmon, or an inanimate thing such as a used train ticket. But there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. An adroit storyteller, he adopts a reader-friendly approach to the given subject matter and develops the narrative in a simple yet subtle way. Quite like a parable in essence. Nonetheless his mystical power to communicate ideas and emotions breathes life and beauty into seemingly mundane subject matter. Lee Byung Ryul is counted one of the rare, affirmative voices of our time.

Lee Byung Ryul was born in Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province, and graduated from the Creative Writing Department of Seoul Arts University. He launched his literary career in 1995. He has published seven books of poetry including You Are about to Go Somewhere, Snowman Inn and Parting Wants a Rendezvous with Me Today in addition to several selected books of prose. He has been recognized with the Prize for Contemporary Literature, the Discovery Literature Award, and the Park Jae Sam Literature Award. The literary coterie Poetry Power, of which he is a member, has been the hub of his poetic creativity.