London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Grasshoppers’ Eyes

From the publisher’s website: The poems of Ko Hyeong-Ryeol are mostly inspired by the landscapes and cityscapes of Korea, occasionally echoing journeys to other lands. The poet allows his memories and imagination free reign so that his poems escape from the limits of naturalistic description and invite the reader to sense both the interrelatedness and … [Read More]

The Worm Poet

From the publisher’s website: Sungsun Lee is a great nature poet. In his poems, like pictures of nature, he always communicates with all things in the universe. He shows how to communicate with others, including humans, animals, plants, and even lifeless things. Sungsun especially shows the beautiful and mysterious world of nature that we can’t … [Read More]

No Flower Blooms Without Wavering

From the publisher’s website: Description It has been a joy to translate poems by one of Korea’s most widely loved poets. The poems of Do Jong-Hwan do not need much explanation or commentary. They are not difficult to understand but offer glimpses of wisdom, lessons learned from life’s greatest joys and deepest pains. Koreans love … [Read More]

North Korean Writers in Exile PEN Literature (VOLUME Book 4)

North Korean Writers in Exile PEN Center is the 144th member of PEN International. Since defecting from North Korea because of their opposition to the dynastic dictatorship, the members of the center have been creating literature that depicts the harsh reality of North Korea and engaging in various activities to improve conditions there. The single … [Read More]

SF-Consensus

From the publisher’s website: About the Book SF-Consensus is a poetry collection of 80 poems by Park Je-chun. In reading Park’s poetry one often gets the impression that he communicates intimately and intensely with nature and the transcendent realm as well as everyday human reality. His poetic prowess often creates esoteric yet gripping imagery, stories … [Read More]

A Lion at Three in the Morning

From the publisher’s website: About the Book A Lion at Three in the Morning contains about sixty poems by Nam Jin-Woo who sings of encounters with unfamiliar things. They may be animals such as a lion or alligators, a plant, a region’s climate or some other strange natural phenomenon. These unfamiliar things function as a … [Read More]

Poems of Kim Yideum, Kim Haengsook + Kim Min Jeong

From the publisher’s website: This collection brings together three of the most exciting voices in contemporary Korean poetry to the English language in translation. These three women poets shock and delight, entertain and de-familiarize, corrupt and contaminate traditional readings and stereotypical definitions of Asian women,  Asian poetry,  Asian-ness. While K-pop girl groups sell cuteness, marketing … [Read More]

Though flowers fall I have never forgotten you

From the publisher’s website: Don’t cry. To be lonely is to be human. To go on living is to endure loneliness. Do not wait in vain for the phone call that never comes. When snow falls, walk on snowy paths, when rain falls, walk on rainy paths. A black-breasted longbill is watching you from the … [Read More]

Someone Always in the Corner of My Eye

From the publisher’s website: A Korean voice from a new generation of cutting-edge poets that will appeal to younger writers and readers. Shim includes deeply personal poems, lyric experiments, and strong social statements that reflects the voices of a community. His grandiose illusions and underprivileged whispers challenge us to consider our relationships. [Read More]

For Nirvana: 108 Zen Sijo Poems

From the publisher’s website: For Nirvana features exceptional examples of the poet Cho Oh-Hyun’s award-winning work. Cho Oh-Hyun was born in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, Korea, and has lived in retreat in the mountains since becoming a novice monk at the age of seven. Writing under the Buddhist name Musan, he has composed hundreds of poems … [Read More]

Portrait of a Suburbanite

From the publisher’s website: This volume is a translation of Choi Seung-ja’s 1991 anthology titled Portrait of a Suburbanite. Published in the series of “100 Prominent Korean Poets” by Mirae Press, the poems in this volume were selected from four of Choi’s previous works titled, Love of This Age (1981), Merry Diary (1984), House of … [Read More]

A Letter Not Sent

From the publisher’s website: Farewell, my dear, may you walk alone down the dawn paths of this age, encounter the freedom of love and death, into the icy river winds, without even a tomb, into the fierce blizzards, without even a song, may you go flowing, flowing like a petal. Your tears will soon become … [Read More]

Fifteen Seconds without Sorrow

From the publisher’s website: Like many younger Korean poets, SHIM BO-SEON writes in an allusive, indirect style about topics that are in themselves familiar, eating rice, taking off clothes, living in an apartment block, struggling with human relationships. He captures some sparkling moments of joys and sorrows, hopes and frustrations that have been concealed in … [Read More]

Poor Love Machine

From the publisher’s website: For decades, Kim Hyesoon — a leading figure in contemporary Korean poetry and trans-national feminist literature — has represented the capabilities of a poet who works across, around, and through the borders of nations and of language itself. Many of her works have been translated, with overwhelming support from Don Mee … [Read More]

Night-Sky Checkerboard

From the publisher’s website: Oh Sae-young’s first English language release translated from the original Korean, Night-Sky Checkerboard, features heart-rendering, explorative poems fixated on existence and humanity’s scarring impact on nature through industrial society. Night-Sky Checkerboard introduces English-language readers to the imagistic lyricism of a Korean master at the peak of his powers. As a young poet … [Read More]

I Am a Season That Does Not Exist in the World

Kim Kyung Ju’s poetry operates in a world where no one seems to belong: “the living are born in the dead people’s world, and the dead are born in the living.” Already in its thirtieth edition in Korea, I AM A SEASON THAT DOES NOT EXIST IN THE WORLD is one of the most important … [Read More]