Culturamas / April 16, 2013

Murmullos de gloria es un libro de poesía cargada de lo onírico y “lo natural” entendido esto desde el punto de vista de todo lo relacionado con la naturaleza: el viento, las olas, las montañas, el aire…, podría decirse que el verso fluye con una cadencia zen.

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Chong Hyon-jong, A Poet Who Steals the Air   on Oct 19 2014 02:04:27 Vol.10 Winter 2010 On a toasty, sunlit afternoon, could there be anything more perfect than interviewing a poet? This is just wishful thinking, but if I could capture the poet Chong Hyon-jong’s departing laugh on this page, I would just stop writing. He has a fierce gaze but a wholesome laughter. Chong was born in Seoul in 1939. Since his literary debut through the journal Hyundae Munhak in 1965, he has published poetry collections including The Dream of Things; I Am the Uncle-Star; Like the Ball that Bounces; So Little Time to Love; Blossom; Trees of the World; Like a Thirst, Like a Spring; Unbearable; and Whispers of Splendor. And his critical essay collections include Soar Up, Gloomy Soul, and Breath and Dream. His poetic world attracted unusual attention from critics and readers early on, and as a result he has been the recipient of Korea's leading literary prizes including the Isan Literary Award, Hyundae Literary Award, Daesan Literary Award, and Midang Literary Award. Moreover, he took the lead in introducing poets like Pablo Neruda and Federico García Lorca to Korea by translating their poetry. For his translations of Neruda, he was one of the hundred writers and other literary contributors around the world who were awarded the Pablo Neruda Medal by the Chilean government on the centennial of the poet's birth. Chong 's poetry has been translated into many languages abroad.

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"In Praise of Thunder" by Chong Hyon-jong     BY CHONG HYON-JONG ON NOV 10 2014 05:32:49 VOL.10 WINTER 2010     Day-Shine Chong Hyon-jong Choe Wolhee Peter Fusco Cornell University East Asia Program 1998 128pp. ISBN 978-1885445940   In Praise of Thunder How, on a summer day, without the thunderbolt which cracks the backbone of heaven and earth how can a man cleanse himself body and soul, really scrub and cool himself -light as air to shift like a breeze let the dawn inundate him?

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Rediscovering the Self Through Lyricism By Yoo Sungho on Oct 31 2014 07:21:25 Vol.10 Winter 2010 As Korea struggled with democracy and industrialization, poets explored lyricism and the inner self.     Through the 1960s, Korean poetry pursued the creative integration of social consciousness and lyricism rather than traditional sentiments, based on the experiences of those who had lived through the April 19 Revolution. Such change could be seen in the leading poets such as Seo Jeong-ju, Kim Hyun-seung, Park Mok-wol, Kim Gwang-seop, Pak Tu-jin, and Cho Chi-hun. For example, Seo Jeong-ju built his own linguistic fortress with a unique mythical imagination and a mastery of the language while Kim Hyun-seung explored the existence of an individual who stands face to face with God. Park Mok-wol turned around from his nature-oriented imagination and delved deeply into the joys and sorrows of the city people and Kim Gwang-seop criticized civilization in The Pigeons of Seongbuk-dong, which was a rare attempt at the time. These poets all explored topics with immutable values such as nature, the individual, the inner self, existence, and the classics, thus diversifying the genre. Just as the poetry of the 1960s wa s ba sed on the possibilities created by the April 19 Revolution, the poetry of the 1970s bloomed amid political oppression and the waves of industrialization. While Ko Un, Shin Kyeong-nim, Kim Ji-ha, Cho Tae-il, Lee Sung-boo, Jeong Hee-sung, and Lee Si-young demonstrated social lyricism, Hwang Tong-gyu, Chong Hyon-jong, Choe Ha-rim, Mah Chong-gi, Oh Kyu-won, Kim Kwang-kyu, Kim Myung-in, and Park Jung-man presented diverse inner experiences based on ontological explorations. Meanwhile, poets like Heu Young-ja, Chung Jin-kyu, Lee Keun-bae, Kim Huran, Oh Tak-bon, Yoo An-jin, Park E-dou, Ra Tae-joo, Lee Soo-ik, Song Soo-kwon, Oh Sae-young, Lee Geon-cheong, Kang Eun-gyo, Shin Dalja, Lim Young-jo, Lee Sung-sun, Moon Chung-hee, Kim Hyeong-young, Cho Jeong-kwon, Hong Shin-seon, Sin Dae-chul, Kim Jong-hae, Kim Jong-chul, Lee Ga-rim, Kim Seung-hee, Lee Jun-gwan, Lee kee-chul, Cho Chang-whan, and Yoon Suk-san continued their path in exploring lyricism.

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The Rise of a Modern Sensibility   By Lee Kwang-ho on Oct 28 2014 02:50:05 Vol.10 Winter 2010 The dawn of a new generation of poets opened the possibilities of experimentation and diversification.     One of the driving forces of modern Korean poetry has been the pursuit of modernity. The efforts to attain a sense of the contemporary that went beyond traditional lyricism became active in the Korean literary scene in the 1930s. Korean poetry, however, only began to include the diversity and depth of modernity after liberation and division in the 1960s when a new generation emerged as literary leaders. After liberation, poets Kim Soo-young and Kim Chunsu pursued two aspects of modernity: a “critique of reality” and the “autonomy of language,” both of which had a major influence on the subsequent development of poetry in Korea. The struggle against the detached and lofty nature of Korean literature and the oppressiveness of Korean society meant that the poetic methodology itself came to signify resistance against reality. The way poetic language responded to the oppressive reality of the times was in itself an aesthetic achievement and a form of resistance. The “April 19 generation” that entered Korean literature after the epochal April 19 Revolution in 1960, was the leading force behind it. The poetry of this generation recognized an oppressive reality as the problem of existence and explored the poetic methodology that could expose it. Such poetry was based on the relationship of tension between the autonomy of literary language and reality. It can be seen as the exploration of modernity in Korean poetry as a response to the industrialization that took place in the 1960s and the 1970s.