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English(English) Article

Lee Si-young’s “Patterns”

About the Article

Article
http://wordswithoutborders.org/book-review/lee-si-youngs-patterns
Journal
Words Without Borders
Issued Date
-
Page
-
Language
English(English)
Country
-
Book
-
Writer
Lee Si-young

About the Author

  • Lee Si-young
  • Birth : 1949 ~ -
  • Occupation : Poet, Editor
  • First Name : Si-young
  • Family Name : Lee
  • Korean Name : 이시영
  • ISNI : 0000000084148520
  • Works : 10
Descriptions - 1 Languages
  • English(English)

A writing professor of mine once admonished my class for praising a story simply because it jibed with our personal understanding of an experience or thing: in the case of the workshop, a student’s short story about an Alzheimer’s patient. Instead, my professor argued that fiction is effective when it makes us believe, regardless of or even in spite of its resonance with personal experience. Such advice obliges me to acknowledge my own bias, hopelessly intertwined with my reading of Korean poet Lee Si-young’s Patterns. Having had the fortune of two fruitful years in Seoul, South Korea, I have strong memories of both city and country, and at times while reading Patterns I couldn’t help thinking, yes, this is exactly how this looked, smelled, sounded, or seemed; ergo this poetry is good. I chuckled at his wry observations on Korean idiosyncrasies and shared in his depression about the peninsula’s continued division. However, I would like to think that Lee’s poetry, aided by limpid translations from Brother Anthony and Yoo Hui-sok, would have struck me even if I had never stepped foot in South Korea.

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