Text from Kyobo bookstore and google translate: The first collection of poems from Han-Young University, covering all of Korea’s leading poets The K-Poet series that draws the essence of Korean poetry that you always want to read at your bedside, translates it into English, and distributes it to the domestic and international markets. The only … [Read More]
Archives: Books (page 108)
An embroidery sampler (K-Poet 08)
Text from the Kyobo bookstore and google translate: The first collection of poetry from Han-Young University, covering all of Korea’s leading poets Kim Jeong- hwan’s new poetry book An embroidery sampler The K-Poet series that draws the essence of Korean poetry that you always want to read at your bedside, translates it into English, and … [Read More]
Butterfly Sleep
From the publisher’s website: Kim Kyung Ju’s allegorical drama Butterfly Sleep refracts a critique of South Korea’s headlong development through a mixture of magic realism and absurdist dark humor set early in the Joseon dynasty. With lyricism and grace, Kim unfolds a lesson of consolation by confrontation, and finally reconciliation, with the ghosts of the … [Read More]
As I Walk Alone
No information available. This title is particularly difficult to source, but can be obtained from the University of Hawai’i Press. [Read More]
Beautiful and Useless
From the publisher’s website: In Beautiful and Useless, Kim Min Jeong exposes the often funny and contradictory rifts that appear in the language of everyday circumstance. She uses slang, puns, cultural referents, and ‘naughty, unwomanly” language in order to challenge readers to expand their ideas of not only what a poem is, but also how … [Read More]
Whale and Vapor
The poems in WHALE AND VAPOR emphasize exhaustion—physically, mentally, and as an existential condition. Kim Kyung Ju playfully turns toward the lyric in this work as a way to reconcile himself with the contemporary world by engaging in dialogue with his Korean literary ancestry. Masterfully translated by Jake Levine in close conversation with the author, … [Read More]
Bred from the Eyes of a Wolf
Equal parts poetry, drama, and sci-fi, award-winning poet Kim Kyung Ju’s verse play BRED FROM THE EYES OF A WOLF follows a post-apocalyptic family of wolves (indistinguishable from humans) forced to taxidermy their own cubs in order to survive. An allegory for the degraded social relations of the present, Kim Kyung Ju’s all-too-familiar dystopia partitions … [Read More]
The Clowns
From the publisher’s website: 이 (爾) (The Clowns) by Kim Tae-woong premiered in 2000 and is today considered one of Korea’s most famous dramas. Awards include: Best Play by the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper; Best Production by the Organization of Korean Theaters, and Best Play by the Seoul Arts Festival. Mr. Kim was lauded as one … [Read More]
A Grand Retreat and Other Plays
From the publisher’s website: This selection of plays offers an overview of Lee Gun-sam’s attempts to portray the socially-underprivileged people’s ‘heroic’ struggle to assert their human dignity in a society swarming with time-serving snobs and hypocrites. Lee Gun-sam’s heartstring was always attached to those who remain honest to themselves and fight for their moral principles. … [Read More]
Echoing Song: Contemporary Korean Women Poets
From the publisher’s website: Echoing Song presents the work of 20 contemporary Korean women poets active from the 1970s to the present. Each poet is represented with 10 to 15 poems reflecting the range of their poetic development. This anthology demonstrates the originality and variety of modern Korean women’s poetry. The poets include Yi Hyangji, No … [Read More]
Brother Enemy: Poems of the Korean War
From the publisher’s website: Twenty-one poets, male and female, North Korean and South Korean, well-known and long forgotten, appear in this collection, the first of its kind in English. The poems reflect the reality of living in a country torn in half by political ideologies. An introduction by translator Ji-moon Suh places the poems and … [Read More]
Among the Flowering Reeds: An Anthology of Classic Korean Poetry Written in Chinese
From the publisher’s website: Up until the 17th century, the bulk of Korean poetry was written in Chinese, the language of poets, scholars, and monks. This work became an integral part of Korean literary tradition. Among the Flowering Reeds, which introduces this important poetic tradition to the English-speaking audience, includes 100 poems spanning more than 1,000 … [Read More]
Because of the Rain: A Selection of Korean Zen Poems
From the publisher’s website: Buddhism was introduced to Korea via China in the fifth century and similar to China and Japan a long tradition of Zen poetry developed. This collection spans 1,500 years of this tradition with a selection of the key poets and teachers starting with Great Master Wonhyo the founder of Korean Zen … [Read More]
Heart’s Agony
From the publisher’s website: “In the back alley at daybreak I write you name, O democracy” -Chiha Kim [Read More]
Even Birds Leave the World
From the publisher’s website: Ji-Woo Hwang’s poems describe a life governed by the inescapable reality that all hell may break loose at any time, a reality that now permeates our own culture. His poems mix lyrical intensity with an acute political sensibility, creating an uneasy tension that makes them by turns moving, humorous, and unnerving. … [Read More]
The Depths of a Clam
From the publisher’s website: Kim Kwang-kyu was born in Seoul in 1941 and is a professor in the German language and literature department at Hanyang University. He has written poetry sharply critical of the abuses of human dignity caused by corrupt politics and the structural contradictions brought about by the industrialization of society. Brother Anthony teaches … [Read More]