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English(English) Article

How to understand Korean poetry

About the Article

Article
http://www.britishcouncil.org/blog/how-understand-korean-poetry
Journal
BRITISH COUNCIL
Issued Date
March 27, 2014
Page
-
Language
English(English)
Country
UNITED KINGDOM
City
-
Book
THE POET
Writer
Yi Mun-yol , Kim Sowol , Kim Su-Young , Shin Kyeong-nim , Ko Un , Kim Ji-ha , Jeong Ho-seung
Translator
Chung Chong-wha,Anthony of Taizé

About the Author

  • Yi Mun-yol
  • Birth : 1948 ~ -
  • Occupation : Novelist
  • First Name : Mun-yol
  • Family Name : Yi
  • Korean Name : 이문열
  • ISNI : 0000000081755894
  • Works : 91
Descriptions - 1 Languages
  • English(English)

If you're curious about Korean poetry, understanding the country's rich and turbulent history is a great place to start. Scholar and translator Brother Anthony of Taizé (An Sonjae) explains. The Korea Cultural Programme is at the London Book Fair this coming April.   Korean poetry is hardly a frequent topic of conversation around British dining tables. This is not surprising, in a world where very little translated poetry is read, although it saddens Korean poetry lovers. There are lots of poets in Korea, and there used to be even more.   Poetry was central to 19th century Korean society   In times past, the main mark of an educated gentleman was an ability to write poetry, mainly in Classical Chinese but also in Korean. The two languages are very different, since Chinese has almost no grammar, whereas Korean has an awful lot of grammar. Indeed, in the Joseon period (1392 – 1910), in order to become a high state official, one had to pass a Chinese-language poetry-writing exam. Before 1900, Korea was a Confucian state in which all studies were conducted using Classical Chinese texts and following Chinese models.   Yi Munyol’s novel The Poet Opens in a new tab or window. (Harvill / Vintage, 2001) tells the true story of a young man’s struggle early in the 19th century to master the rules of classical Chinese poetry, only to find he was disqualified from taking the civil service exam. So he became a wandering poet, and was welcomed everywhere because poetry composition was a popular form of entertainment as well.   Once modernisation began, just before 1900, with the introduction of the modern curriculum in schools, the whole tradition and culture of Classical Chinese poetry went into decline. Historians of Korean literature cannot agree whether or not there is any continuity linking it with contemporary Korean poetry.  

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