From the listing at Interpark:
The year that started with masks is ending with masks.
How often have I left my mask behind and had to go back for it?
Looking back, it’s all my fault.
The past days of heedless living are observing my behavior closely today.
(Poet’s Note)
The poems of things that have not yet come may also be related to the poet’s age, sixty. These poems gauge the future based on the years that the poet has lived and unfold thoughts on the death that does not feel far away. In this way, the poet endures, feeling “bleak like six in the evening in late autumn.“
(Commentary)
Born in Jeju in 1959, Kim Soo-yeol still lives in Jeju. In 1982, he began his career by being published in Practical Literature, his published collections of poetry include: It doesn’t matter where I am standing, On the road where the traffic lights fell, Turn of the Wind, Stealing Your Thoughts, Possession, Letters from Water, and a verse collection about the Jeju Incident There is a place for flowers, a book of prose, “Kim Sooyeol’s Book Reading”, and On the Day of the Sukmaparam. After giving up his 30-year teaching career in his hometown, he wakes up in the morning, wondering where he will walk today and who he will meet. He received the 4th Oh Jang-Hwan Literary Award and the 3rd Shin Seokjeong Literary Award.
Brother Anthony of Taize was born in England in 1942. He has been living in Korea since 1980, and taught English literature in Sogang University (Seoul), where he is now an Emeritus Professor. He is also a Chair-Professor at Dankook University. He took Korean citizenship in 1994 and received the Korean government’s Award of Merit, Jade Crown class, in October 2008. He has published over forty volumes of English translations.