One hundred and six poems of self-reflection and exquisite beauty—an intoxicating blend of Seon Buddhism and French symbolism, and the first poetry collection from this essential South Korean author to appear in English That summer I stood in the centers of storms That summer my despair burst out into crimson but still I weathered the … [Read More]
Booklist: Poetry in Translation
A listing of Korean poems in English translation. Titles are sorted in date of publication in English translation, most recent first. An alphabetical listing by author can be found here.
The Hell of That Star
Singular poetry made through censorship, elusion, and language renewal The astonishing poetry collection The Hell of That Star enlivens the horror of Korean life under U.S.-backed authoritarianism. Poems of blows and vomit, births and coffins alternate blithe confidence and trembling terror. When slapped seven times by a government censor, Kim responded with defiant poems. The death of language … [Read More]
Hail, Che!
An explosive collection of revolutionary poems that make the case that only poetry can save humanity. Korean poet Pak Jeong-de envisioned Hail, Che! as a textual performance that sings and dreams of revolution. In these poems, he invokes the names of more than 200 artists— writers, musicians, filmmakers, and painters—whom he considers comrades capable of saving humanity. … [Read More]
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever
One of the most famous poets in Korea, Kim Yeong-nang spent most of his life in Gangjin county, Jeolla province, in the southern part of Korea. He wrote 86 poems and published 2 books in his lifetime. Though he was a noted performer of traditional Korean music he also loved classical Western music and was … [Read More]
Dark Miracle (K-poet 47)
This book is an English collection of twenty poems translated from Jeong Hyun-woo’s 검은 기적. In this volume, the poet traces the world of lingering light and shifting forms as he passes through the absence of his beloved mother, remembering from the lowest and most enduring place of the heart. Memories bound to the body-like … [Read More]
From Being to Being
Characterized by genius wordplay, Oh Eun’s poems play with homophones and homonyms while keeping the wit, criticalness, and beauty we associate with Korean poetry. In their sonic play, Oh Eun’s poems bounce dangerously on a tightrope of language. These are poems that in their content and form simultaneously expand the boundaries of language and delight, … [Read More]
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, … [Read More]
Seeking You
Jeong Ho-seung’s Seeking You, translated from Korean by Brother Anthony of Taizé, explores human existence through an interconnectivity to nature and the cosmos. His poems foster a poetic voice that is filled with child wonder and aged wisdom—an approach that extends both humor and analytical depth. Seeking You stands as a testament to a poet’s … [Read More]
Have you had your rice?
Kieun Kiaer’s food poems are rich with emotion – intimate, layered and unexpectedly expansive. Food may not speak in words, but in her poetry, it speaks volumes. Her voice is gentle yet precise, full of clarity and care. When asked why someone with such an accomplished academic career would turn to writing poetry about Korean … [Read More]
Anti-Nationalist (K-Poet 45)
It is an English poetry collection that contains 20 of the works included in poet Byun Yoon-je’s poetry collection “Anti-State Forces” and translated into English. If his first collection of poems, “I Will Be Lovely Next Year,” firmly depicts solid depiction of solidarity, hope, and the will to not let go of love while struggling … [Read More]
Phantom Limbs
First published in Korean in 2005, Phantom Limbs is Lee Min-ha’s debut book of poetry. Critically lauded for its visceral imagery and world-building through word-play, this collection of surreal and fabulistic poems reminds readers that poems are spells and incantations. Lee Min-ha is a Korean poet based in Seoul. She is the author of five … [Read More]
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 … [Read More]
Like a Fruit Tearing Its Way Out of a Flower
Like A Fruit Tearing Its Way Out of a Flower by Jang Okgwan is a collection of poems selected by the poet from his almost 40-year, award winning career. With the lightness and wit of a comedian, Jang’s meditations on aging brilliantly capture the conflict between the unflinching power of the human mind against the unavoidable … [Read More]
I Am Not Korean
Song Kyeong-dong is a social activist and a poet. He is surely the only Korean poet capable of writing a poem denying that he is Korean, being filled with shame on reading of the way Korean companies, having relocated their factories to Southeast Asia to profit from cheap labor, systematically exploit and abuse their underpaid workers, … [Read More]
Selected Works of Yi Ok
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 … [Read More]
Dawn of Labor
Dawn of Labor, at last translated into English, is the legendary South Korean poet Park Nohae’s first collection, published in 1984 when he was twenty-seven years old. Despite a government ban, the book sold a million copies and propelled Park Nohae as the generation’s leading resistance poet. Dawn of Labor is an enduring classic that shook a … [Read More]