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<DIV><FONT size=4>Such sad news. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=4>Brother Anthony kindly introduced me to Mok
Sun-Ok.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Ever since, I never failed to visit her tiny cafe for a
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>restorative <EM>daechucha</EM>. Seoul's bustle melts away
there.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>She was very remarkable - and </FONT><FONT size=4>will
live on in her book,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>which Anthony did us all a great boon by
translating.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>It's available from Seoul Selection: see below.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>I sometimes think modern Korea has had more than its
share</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>of extraordinary lives. Hers was astonishing, and
humbling.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><EM><FONT size=4>Requiescat in pace.</FONT></EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM><FONT size=4></FONT></EM> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Aidan FC</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black" lang=EN-GB><FONT size=3>Aidan
Foster-Carter<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black" lang=EN-GB>Honorary Senior Research
Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds University, UK</SPAN></I><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 8pt" lang=EN-GB> </SPAN></I><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 8pt" lang=EN-GB><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><EM><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black" lang=EN-GB>E</SPAN></EM><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-style: italic" lang=EN-GB>: <A title=mailto:afostercarter@aol.com href="mailto:afostercarter@aol.com">afostercarter@aol.com</A><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><A title=mailto:afostercarter@yahoo.com href="mailto:afostercarter@yahoo.com">afostercarter@yahoo.com</A><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><EM><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria">W</SPAN></EM>: <A title=http://www.aidanfc.net/ href="http://www.aidanfc.net/">www.aidanfc.net</A><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black" lang=EN-GB><FONT size=3>Flat 1, <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>40 Magdalen Road, <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Exeter, <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Devon, <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>EX2 4TE, <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>England, <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>UK<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><EM><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black" lang=EN-GB>T:</SPAN></EM><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black" lang=EN-GB> (+44, no 0)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>07970 741307 (mobile);<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic">01392 257753 (home)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black" lang=EN-GB>Skype</SPAN></I><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black" lang=EN-GB>: <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Aidan.Foster.Carter <EM><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria">Twitter:</SPAN></EM> <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>fcaidan<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
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<DIV><A href="http://www.seoulselection.com/bookstore/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=1166&category_id=14&keyword=tea&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=53"><FONT size=1>http://www.seoulselection.com/bookstore/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=1166&category_id=14&keyword=tea&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=53</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=4><SPAN style="WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; BORDER-COLLAPSE: separate; FONT: medium 'Times New Roman'; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; LETTER-SPACING: normal; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px" class=Apple-style-span><SPAN style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; LINE-HEIGHT: 18px; BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana; COLOR: rgb(102,102,102); FONT-SIZE: 12px" class=Apple-style-span>"wonderful translation . . . It's the best book of prose
I've read from Korea. nothing like it, nothing close." (Professor David McCann,
Harvard University) "absolutely engrossing, absorbing and engaging" (C. Yun) The
Fate Called a Poet's Wife Memoir of Mok-sun-ok, wife of deceased poet Chon
Sang-pyong A deeply personal account of life as a poet's wife is now available
in English. Mok Sun-ok, poet Chon Sang-pyong's wife of over 20 years, writes
about her years with the poet in My Husband the Poet, published by Seoul
Selection. Dead poets are usually quickly forgotten in Korea, yet his is still a
familiar name to most Koreans. Younger people know him as the poet with a
childlike heart who wrote the beautiful poem "Kwichon" that they read in high
school. Older people remember him as a picturesque eccentric who enjoyed hanging
out with artistic, bohemian friends in the bars of Myeong-dong, drinking
makkolli, talking and laughing loudly, and writing poems and essays for a
pittance. Likewise, anyone familiar with Insa-dong knows the tiny tea-house also
called "Kwichon," which is run by the poet's wife since 1985. Since his death in
1993, the story of their life together has been portrayed in stage plays,
musicals, and TV dramas: his life in total poverty, his arrest and torture on
the groundless suspicion of being a spy, his dramatic disappearance, then
reappearance just when his friends had concluded he was dead, his love of
children, and above all, the faithful and selfless care he received through
twenty years from Mok Sun-ok, his wife. It is entirely thanks to her efforts
that now, a dozen years after his death, Chon Sang-pyong is commemorated by
memorial stones in several parts of the country and an annual Chong Sang-pyong
Literary Award, as well a yearly Chon Sang-pyong Festival in Uijongbu, where he
lived, died and is buried. Herself a survivor of the Hiroshima atom bomb, Mok
Sun-ok wrote and published the story of their life together soon after he died.
Mok Sun-ok has previously described Chon Sang-pyung as "having the innocence of
a 7-year old." In the book, she tells the story of living with her childlike
husband, who writes like an angel but has no other abilities. It is Mok Sun-ok
who has to take care of him like a baby, while keeping up the teahouse. People
who know the couple say that without her patience and selflessness, his writings
would not have been possible. Through its frank and honest narrative, the book
offers interesting insights into one of Korean literature's most famous couples.
English translation was undertaken by Brother Anthony, professor of English
literature at Sogang University. About the book, he says, "It is a remarkable
story, a beautiful one; very "Korean" in the way it is told, and one that many
people across the world ought to read. It is intensely human, funny and sad at
the same time." This is the 20th volume he has published of translations from
Korean. Beginning in 1990, most of his work has been on poetry, including a
volume of poems by Chon Sang-pyong published in the United States at Cornell
University in 1995, then reprinted in a bilingual edition by DapGae (Seoul) that
has gone into 17 reprints so far. Other translations he has published include
several volumes of works by Ko Un, and by Ku Sang, by So Chong-ju, Shin
Kyong-Nim, Kim Kwang-kyu etc. In the coming weeks he will be publishing 4 more
volumes: translations of poems by Kim Kwang-kyu, by Ko Un, and by Mah Chonggi,
and a book about Korean green tea written by himself in
English.</SPAN></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>______________</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 8/27/2010 19:28:29 GMT Daylight Time,
ansonjae@sogang.ac.kr writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" size=2 face=Arial>I am sorry to report
the death on August 26 of Mok Sun-Ok, the widow of the poet Chon Sang-Pyong.
Some members of this list will have been to the little cafe "Kwichon" which
she first opened in Seoul's Insa-dong in 1985 and which she kept open every
day of the year until very recently, although the original shack was
demolished and replaced by a concrete bunker several years ago, with loss of
most of the original charm. Her life-story with that of Chon Sang-Pyong (which
she told in a book I translated, "My Husband the Poet") is a remarkable tale.
Having survived the Hiroshima atom bomb which killed her father, she agreed to
become the wife / carer of her brother's friend Chon Sang-Pyong after his 1971
breakdown and shared his poverty until he died in 1993. After that she played
the leading role in maintaining and promoting his memory, which finally
resulted in the annual arts festival bearing his name held in Uijeongbu each
April. She was still looking after her mother, who was born in 1910, when she
died. Her niece operates a second "Kwichon" cafe in Insadong, serving the same
home-made fruit teas, but for many people Mok Sun-Ok was a unique witness to a
bygone Seoul, expressed by the flow of older writers, artists, musicians and
youger workers and students coming to pay their respects. The funeral will be
this Sunday.<BR><BR>Brother Anthony<BR>Sogang University,
Seoul<BR>http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/<BR><BR><BR><BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
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