Flatfish: Poems

In his poetry collection, Flatfish, Moon Tae-jun offers an aesthetic that emphasizes the author’s exploration of the inner self. At times sparse and allusive, his poems use blank space and other stylistic considerations to convey a voice and thought that ranges from the contemplative to the surreal and absurd. Moon’s poems suggest Buddhist ideologies, natural images, and Korean  temples, as the collection explores individual experiences within the context of a search for understanding a greater whole.

While Korea is certainly the setting of these poems, the works remain largely free of cultural-specific imagery and are, instead, naturalistic or universal. This first bilingual edition is a critical resource for students, poets, translators, and general readers alike.

An emerging voice in South Korean literature, MOON TAE-JUN has published a number of poetry collections in Korean (Crowded Backyard, Barefeet, A Shadow’s Development, and more). In poems that range from short, broken lines to longer prose-like forms, Moon Tae-jun evokes a sense of longing, as if searching for moments in the past that help inform the present.

BRANDON JOSEPH PARK is a lecturer in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at Rutgers University – New Brunswick, and in the Writing Program at Rutgers University – Newark. He is the co-translator of You Call That Music?!: Korean Popular Music Through  the Generations.

Source: publisher’s website