Korean poets

 

Poet Ms. Kim Sun Young

Poet Kim Sun-Young was born on May 17, 1938, in Kaesong, Gyeonggi Province. She graduated from Sudo Women's Teachers College and later served as a teacher at Sudo Girls' Middle School and as a professor at Sejong University.In 1962, she made her literary debut in HyundaeMunhak(Modern Literature) after her poems Bluebird, Echo, and Graffiti of the Seasons were recommended for publication. She was also an active member of the literary coterie Cheongmi (靑眉).Since the publication of her first poetry collection, Saga (思歌), in 1969, she has published 15 poetry collections, including The Shoe Store of Emptiness (1972), Wildflower Ritual (1976), Atmosphere of Fantasy (1976), Words Written at Night (1982), God Who Lives in the Lilac Tree (1983), Song of Longing (1987), and To Shatter (2008).She has received numerous literary awards, including the Contemporary Poetry Award and the Korean Literature Award. She has also served as an advisory board member of the Korean Poets Association and the Korean Women Writers’ Association, as well as a member of the International PEN Korea Center.

The Vegetative Nature of Longing

Even when erased,

Even when erased again,

It reappears like a crescent moon,

Grows beyond a half-moon,

Becomes a full moon.

Like a face

Drifting as a full moon,

People hang

The space of longing

In their hearts.

Love,

Even when one tries to forget,

Has a terrifying vegetative nature—

It reveals itself, it grows.

That is why tonight is a full moon.

그리움의 식물성

지워도

지워도

생기는 초승달같이

반달에서 더 자란

만월같이

만월로 둥실

걸린

얼굴같이

사람들은 그리움 공간을

가슴에 걸어 두지요

사랑은

잊으려 하여도

드러나고 자라나는 무서운

식물성이 있어요

그래서 오늘밤 만월이에요

Poet Siyoung Doung

Poet Siyoung Doung graduated from the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Dongguk University and went on to earn a Ph.D. in Korean Language and Literature from Hanyang University. She further expanded her academic pursuits by studying humanities at Regensburg University in Germany. Her teaching career includes positions as a professor at Korea Tourism University and Jilin University of Finance and Economics in China.

Her literary journey began in 2003 with her poetry debut in the literary magazine Dacheung. Since then, she has published numerous poetry collections, including Future Hunting, In Search of a Strange God, The Phone Call from God, The Eyes of November, The Carnival of Time (Anthology), Was It You, Was It Me, or Was It Longing?, The Scent of Secrets, Aria of Everyday Life, The River Flowing Under the Pen, The Magic Letters, and The Horizon Never Gets Wet.In addition to poetry, Doung has contributed significantly to literary research with works such as Roh Cheon-myung's Poetry and Semiotics, Korean Literature and Semiotics, and Semiotics of Modern Poetry. Her exploration of literature extends into travel writing, with essay collections like Encountering Culture Through Travel and Encountering Travel Through Literature.Her literary excellence has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including the Park Hwa-mok Literary Award (2010), Poetry and Poetics Young Poet Award (2011), the Grand Prize at the Korean Buddhist Literature Awards (2018), the 32nd Dongguk Literary Award (2019), the Yeongrang Literary Award for Criticism (2020), and the 7th Woltan Park Jong-hwa Literary Award by the Korean Writers’ Association (2021). Most recently, she received the Literary Youth Work Award in 2024.

In recognition of her contributions to literature, She was also a recipient of a creative grant from the Arts Council Korea in 2005.

Like a Single Word

The sky and the earth are the lips of eternity.

There,

we live like a single word.

Like a ring worn without knowing

whose hand placed it,

people live, fitted into the world.

Today,

I do not know where I am.

Just standing—

Hands engraving handprints,

feet engraving footprints.

Life is finding a path in the void.

Birds know

that the void is eternity.

Living is the breaking of one boundary after another.

Life grows colder as it goes on.

The time they wrote

abandons them in the end.

On a spring day when cherry blossoms befriend the wind,

mountain-like buildings,

valley-like alleys,

water-like people.

People, worn by strangeness,

save it sparingly, fearing they might grow used to it.

An angel slips between their lips,

and they take out a single smile.

한 마디 말처럼

하늘과 땅은 영원의 입술

거기,

한 마디 말처럼 우리는 산다

누구의 손에 끼웠는지

모르고 사는 반지처럼

세상에 끼워 사는 사람들

오늘은

어디 있는지 몰라

그냥 서 있는 곳

손으론 손자국 판화

발로는 발자국 판화

삶은 허공에서 길 찿기

새들은 안다

허공이 영원이라는 걸

사는 건 경계가 경계를 허무는 것

목숨은 갈수록 쌀쌀한 남

그들이 쓴 시간이 그들을 버린다

벚꽃이 벗하는 봄날

산 같은 빌딩

계곡 같은 골목

물 같은 사람들

사람들은 낯섦이 닳아

익숙해질까 봐 아껴 쓰고 있다

입에 드나드는 천사

웃음 하나 꺼내 본다

Poet Ms. Im Sol Nae

Poet Ms. Im Sol Nae received the Newcomer Award from the monthly literary magazine JayuMunhak in 1999. Her poetry collections include The QR Code of a Leaf, Amazon, That Transit Station, The Cry of an Awakened Amazon, Hong Nyeo, and many others. She has also received numerous literary honors, including the Yeongnang Poetry Award, the Korean Literary Critics Association Award, the Korean Lyric Poetry Award, selection as a Sejong Excellent Book, the Poet’s Poet Award, and the Buddhist Literary Writers’ Award.

Blue Butterfly

"The sky and the earth are my coffin, and the sun, moon, and stars are my burial gifts"
Zhuangzi once said.
I envied him.
I envied the silkworm
that sheds its stiff cocoon of flesh
to become a butterfly of the soul.

I envied Kübler-Ross,★
who cared for dying children,
carrying a plush caterpillar that, when flipped,
transformed into a butterfly,
a small miracle for her young patients.

But what moved me even more
was the final moment of her own funeral—
her children opening a small box before the coffin,
releasing butterflies into the air.

And when the mourners opened their envelopes,
blue butterflies fluttered out,
rising toward the sky.

What are we to do with such beauty?

★ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: Swiss-born psychiatrist and world-renowned authority on thanatology (the study of death and dying).


파란나비

“하늘과 땅이 관이고 해, 달, 별이
나의 순장품이다” 라던 장자가
나는 부러웠습니다
그 딱딱한 육신의 고치를 벗고
영혼의 나비가 되는 누에가
나는 참 부러웠습니다.

임종을 앞 둔 어린이들을 돌 본
퀴블러 로스★
뒤집으면 나비로 변하는 애벌레 인형을
가지고 다니며 어린 환자들에게 보여 주던
그가
나는 참말 부러웠습니다.

더 기막힌 것은,
자신의 장례식의 절정을
그의 자녀가 관 앞에서 작은 상자를 열어
나비가 날아가게 한 것
조문객들이 미리 받은 봉투를 열자
봉투에서파란나비가 나와
공중으로 날아 갔대잖아요
이 일을 어쩌면 좋아요


★「퀴블러 로스」 스위스 태생의 정신과 의사, 생사학의 세계적인 권위자

Poet Ms. Koo Myongsook

Poet Ms. Koo Myongsook was born in Nonsan, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea. She graduated from Sookmyung Women's University with a degree in Korean literature and later earned her Ph.D. in literature from Bielefeld University in Germany. She received the New Writer's Award from the monthly literary magazine Simunhak in 1999 and from Poetry and Poetics in 2009.

She has held various academic and cultural leadership positions, including Visiting Professor at Soka University in Japan, Visiting Professor at Waseda University, Director of the Sookmyung Leadership Development Institute, Director of the Museum and Cultural Center, President of the Korean Women's Literary Association, Chief Editor of Our Literature, Chairperson of the Korea Gender Equality Education Promotion Institute, Policy Advisory Member for the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Mediator at the Seoul Family Court, Chief Editor of Siseon, Director of the Literature House Seoul, and Vice President of the Korean Women's Literary Association.

Currently, she is an Emeritus Professor at Sookmyung Women's University, President of the Glocal Women's Network, Director of the Korean Women's Organizations Council, Director of the National Museum of Korean Literature, Advisory Member for Korea Women Consumers News, Senior Vice President of the Seocho Cultural Center, and Vice President of the World Poetry Literature Society.

Her poetry collections include How Many Bushels of Rice Has That Woman Washed to Cook?,Walking, Life Is, Sky Tree (selected as an excellent literary book in the 2014 Sejong Book Program), The Art of Flowers, You, Pietà, Heartfelt, Asking the Spring River off the Way of Poetry, and Where Do Clouds Go?.

Her academic publications include Understanding Korean Women's Literature, The Horizon of Han Moo-sook’s Literature, Women Communicating Through Literature, A Collection of Women's Literature (From Liberation to the 1960s) Vol. 1-6, Diaspora and Korean Literature, War-time Literary Discourse and the Reconstruction of Collective Memory, and edited works such as Anthology of Women's Short Stories from the Liberation Period, Anthology of Korean Women's Essays (1945-1953), Anthology of Korean War-Era Women's Literature, Bibliography of Works by Korean Women Writers: From Liberation to the 1960s, and Selected Works of Representative Korean Women Poets.

She has received numerous awards, including the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Award, the Manhae "Nim" Poetry Award, the Excellence Award from Poetry and Poetics, the Seocho Writers’ Association Grand Prize, and the Grand Prize from the World Poetry Literature Society.

The Mountain

Even after ten thousand years,

It stacks layers upon layers of loneliness.

Though people tread upon it,

the path always remains alone.

With ten thousand forms,

yet possessing nothing at all.

oh, you, majestic mountain.

산은

만년이지나도

외로움을켜켜이쌓아올린다

사람들이밟고걸어도

길은언제나홀로일 뿐

만가지형상을가지고있으면서도

아무것도갖지않는

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