[KS] KSR 2006-10: _Three Poets of Modern Korea: Yi Sang, Hahm Dong-Seon and Choi Young-Mi_, tr. and ed. by Yu Jung-Yul and James Kimbrell

Fri Aug 11 17:54:57 EDT 2006

_Three Poets of Modern Korea: Yi Sang, Hahm Dong-Seon and Choi 
Young-Mi_, translated and edited by Yu Jung-Yul and James Kimbrell. 
Louisville, KY: Sarabande Books, 2002. 72 pages. (ISBN 1-8893-3071-X, 
paper). US $13.95.

Reviewed by Sehjae Chun
Hanyang University
san at hanyang.ac.kr

Readers of Three Poets of Modern Korea: Yi Sang, Hahm Dong-Seon, and 
Choi Young-Mi, translated and edited by Yu Jung-Yul and James 
Kimbrell, may be pleasantly surprised to see the intriguing 
combination of these three poets, and wonder how these three poets 
have come to be put together in one volume. Yi (1910-1937) was an 
experimental poet from the early twentieth century when Korea was 
under Japanese occupation; Hahm (1930- ) is a poet, essayist, and 
professor of Korean Literature and relatively lesser-known than the 
other two poets; and Choi (1961- ) is the author of a poetry 
collection that has sold half a million copies. As Kimbrell warns, 
this volume is not a canonical collection, but presents "a sense of 
the vision inherent in each of these poets" (xviii) and appears to 
have been designed to showcase the diversity of Korean poetry to 
English readers. 

Yu and Kimbrell, after a succinct introduction that provides both 
historical context and biographical sketches of each poet, invite the 
reader to three distinct poetic realms of modern Korea. Yi Sang, the 
first to appear in this collection, is one of the few Korean poets, 
whose work, like that of Ko Un, has been relatively widely 
disseminated in English.  Yi's poetry exemplifies many undercurrents 
in the modern Korean literary scene. Well-known for the experimental, 
surreal, and abstract composition of his poems, which invite various 
interpretations, he uses the pseudonym Yi Sang, which can be 
interpreted as "strange."  His poems remind one of Louis Zukofsky's 
"A" or some of the experimental pieces of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets, 
and it is little wonder that his poems are widely read and studied 
for their distinctive style. In particular, "Crow's-Eye View," a 
serial collection of fourteen poems, translated here, poses an 
interpretive challenge to readers of both Korean and English 
literature.  The series, in combining geometrical diagrams, 
disruptive grammatical composition, the innovative appropriation of 
space and other devices allows for a rich but sometimes frustrating 
poetic freedom of interpretation.

In accordance with the demanding textuality of Yi's oeuvre, 
translators sometimes must make bold interpretive decisions, and the 
attempts to embark on this difficult task in this volume deserve 
recognition for making the text very readable. However, close 
comparison with the original text shows that the translators have at 
times engaged in arbitrary interpretation of Yi's stylistic 
strategies. For example, the lack of spacing between the words in the 
original Korean highlights a visual and architectonic design on Yi's 
part, similar to the postmodern poetics found in many "Language" 
poems.  The translation, however, disrupts this format, placing 
spaces between words and detracting from the aesthetic appeal of his 
poems.

For Hahm and Choi's poems, however, the translators succeed more 
fully in maintaining a delicate balance between readability and 
faithfulness to the original. Hahm differs from Yi in neither 
following radical experimental poetics nor having attained stellar 
literary status. Hahm differs from the indigenous lyricism of Su 
Jung-Joo and Park Jae-Sam, or the prosaic rhetoric of Kim Su-Young, 
in his exploration of the acute sense of reality about the separation 
of North and South Korea. Given that poems about the Korean War and 
the subsequent confrontation between the North and the South largely 
have not currently been receiving the attention they deserve from 
literary circles, the reintroduction of such Hahm's poems as 
"Colony," "In Tunnel Number Three," and "The Last Face" by English 
readers of Korean is very welcome. Beginning with his own personal 
experience of exile in the Korean War, Hahm delves into the 
sensibility of those who were forced to leave their home and echoes 
this sensibility onward to contemporary Korean society in a 
controlled voice. For example, in "Jeju Island," Hahm employs a 
poetic alter ego, 'Chusa,' who was exiled to Jeju Island for his role 
in the political turmoil of 1840, in order to confront the 
unbridgeable rupture between the personal and the historical before 
returning to his own subjectivity.

Hahm's poems attempt to reach into the ongoing histories of North and 
South and have perhaps their greatest appeal to the generation who 
experienced the Korean War.   Choi's work, on the other hand, 
resonates most particularly with the so-called "386" generation who, 
in the 1990s were in their 30s, had attended university in the 1980s 
and were born in the 1960s (and who are now in the process of 
transformation into a "486" generation). The 386ers stood in the 
midst of the historical turbulence of the 1980s, marked by such 
events as the Kwangju Democratic Uprising, military dictatorship, 
radical student demonstrations, and the Seoul Olympics. Heirs to the 
spirit of the 4.19 Student Revolution in 1960, which led to the fall 
of the corrupt Syngman Rhee regime, they represent a similar wave of 
ideals and a desire to be free from corruption, politically and 
socially. Choi's first poetry collection, provocatively titled At 
Thirty, the Party Was Over, may be compared to the success of Sylvia 
Plath's Ariel.  Choi here pointedly articulates the pessimistic voice 
of the female activist, recalling the agony and despair of the 1980s 
social movements that swept Korean society.  In persuasively echoing 
the struggles of the 386 generation in the midst of the 1980s, she 
attempts to address the wounds of this turbulent age.  "At Thirty, 
the Party Was Over" shows her ambiguous feelings about her 
involvement with the student protest movements. In a tone of 
self-contempt, she confesses that 'I liked the demonstrators more 
than the demonstrations' and that her efforts in the student 
movements made 'no difference at all.' However, she acknowledges her 
social responsibility, writing that 'someone will stay here until 
it's all over, and clean the table before the owner comes out.' 
Furthermore, 'the party' has a more specific cultural significance 
for women, because the burden of the tremendous preparation for 
traditional Korean parties is placed on women.

Choi's poems are also characterized by sexually provocative 
descriptions as in the following lines from "Recollection of the Last 
Sex":  'I chewed for a long time / on the recollection of the last 
sex / that filled my mouth.' Similarly in "Song in a Dolorous Café," 
she writes, 'With which chap / did I pluck the flower of random 
desire without any guilt at all.' Although overwhelmed by conflicting 
responses from the readership that she commercialized the student 
movement while succeeding in articulating her sexuality and 
individuality, Choi's poems make a fresh impact on readers who are 
accustomed to literary seriousness as well.

Readers, however, must be aware that the translations here are chosen 
from both her poetry books, and arranged randomly without any 
indication of volume. Poems from Choi's second volume, such as "Amen 
I" "Amen II" and "In the Submerged Area of Imha Dam," reveal an 
evolution from her earlier sensational and self-derogatory impulses 
towards a more sedate and patient tone, although the translators make 
no note of this. The changes signal Choi and the 386 generation's 
adaptation to a changing social and historical environment.

Three Poets of Modern Korea clearly shows Yu and Kimbrell's affection 
for Korean poems and fills a niche with its diversity of perspectives 
and tastes in Korean poetry. The volume will contribute towards 
fostering appreciation of Korean poems, and therein lies its strength.

Citation:
Chun, Sehjae 2006
Review of _Three Poets of Modern Korea: Yi Sang, Hahm Dong-Seon and 
Choi Young-Mi_, translated and edited by Yu Jung-Yul and James 
Kimbrell (2002)
_Korean Studies Review_ 2006, no. 10
Electronic file: http://koreaweb.ws/ks/ksr/ksr06-10.htm
_Three Poets of Modern Korea: Yi Sang, Hahm Dong-Seon and Choi 
Young-Mi_, translated and edited by Yu Jung-Yul and James Kimbrell. 
Louisville, KY: Sarabande Books, 2002. 72 pages. (ISBN 1-8893-3071-X, 
paper). US $13.95.

Reviewed by Sehjae Chun
Hanyang University
san at hanyang.ac.kr