Author: Yi Ok
Translated by: Christopher Merrill, Kim Won-Chung, Lee Hyeonwu
Publisher: Homa + Sekey, 2024
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Selected Works of Yi Ok is a translation of Yi’s most important works, including Plain Verses, Short Odes of Kyǒnggŭm, and five short stories, including The Life of Student Sim, The Life of Lee Hong, The Life of Chang Boksŏn, The Life of Yu Kwangŏk, and The Life of Singer Song Silsol. Yi was a literary rebel in the Chosǒn society as Williams Wordsworth was in England. Refusing to follow Chinese classical writers, Yi minutely depicts quotidian things and people around him by using the common language people actually uses. Plain verses contains his poetics in four “difficulties” and it is remarkable that Yi adopts a female voice to depict the love between a man and a woman and her hard married life. His short odes show his deep affection for the “little” things of the world such as insects and flowers. Yi stands out as an independent and unique writer in the late Chosŏn period and this book clearly shows why he is regarded as one of the most popular classical writers.
About the Author
Yi Ok (1760-1813) is a poet and literary man in the late Chosŏn period. His pen name is Munmuja. As a student of Sŏngkyunkwan, he passed Classics Licentiate Examination in 1790. As a leader in the new literary movement called sop’ummun, essays on minor subjects, he was punished to serve a military service by King Chǒngjo. He gave up his ambition to pass civil service examination and devoted his life on studying and writing. Yi composed works of diverse genres in experimental styles and is thus regarded as a best writer of odes. His writings could survive because Kim Ryŏ (1766-1822), his friend, collected his posthumous works. Yi’s works were contained in Posthumous Writings of Kim Ryŏ, called Tamjŏngyugo.
About the Translators
Won-Chung Kim is a professor of English Literature at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, Korea, where he teaches contemporary American poetry, ecological literature, and translation. Christopher Merrill has published seven collections of poetry, including Watch Fire, for which he received the Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets. Hyeonwu Lee is a specialist in classical Korean literature written in Chinese characters. She has translated many classical writers into modern Korean.
Source: publisher’s website