The Poet

by Yi Mun-Yol

A young man's determination to maintain his integrity in an unjust society forces him to endure a lonely and dangerous odyssey.

When a governor to the King falls into rebel hands, he switches sides to save his skin. When later he is captured by royal troops, it is not only he that is condemned to death as a traitor but his sons and grandsons too. They survive by subterfuge, but though they keep their lives, they have lost their place in society.

The Poet tells the story of Kim, the younger grandson, who is consigned to a life of wandering and vagrancy even as he struggles for recognition as a poet, who is constantly tempted to make compromises - to the point of betraying his own family - to survive as an artist and a free spirit.

Genres: Fiction, Poetry, Classics, Asian Literature, Literature, Historical Fiction, Asia

221 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Yi Mun-yol (born May 18, 1948) is a South Korean writer.

Yi Mun-yol was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1948, but the outbreak of the Korean War and his father's defection to North Korea forced his family to move about until they settled in Yeongyang, Gyeongsangbuk-do, the ancestral seat of his family. The fact that his father defected dramatically affected his life, as he was seen and treated as "the son of a political offender," and was "passed around among relatives[.] After dropping out of the College of Education of Seoul National University in 1970, Yi Mun-yol made his literary debut through the annual literary contests of the Daegu Maeil Newspaper in 1977, and the Dong-A Ilbo in 1979. On being awarded the prestigious "Today's Writer Award" for The Son of Man in 1979, Yi emerged as the most noteworthy writer of the time. The Son of Man explores the theme of the complex relationship between God and humanity in light of the finite nature of human existence inadvertently cast in infinite universe, through the eyes of the protagonist who is doubtful of the Christian Weltanschauung. From 1994 to 1997, he taught Korean language and literature at Sejong University. Since 1999, he has also served as the head of Buak Literary Center, a residential program for budding writers. He is currently a chair professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

(from Wikipedia)

Associated Names:
* Yi Mun-Yol
* 이문열 (Korean Profile)

Reviews

[Steve]

Shiin (The Poet - 1992) is a piece of historical fiction written by one of Korea's leading contemporary novelists, Yi Mun-yol (b. 1948), which resurrects the life and times of the poet Kim Pyong-yon (1807 - 1863).(*) It appears that Yi chose to write about Kim because they had a fundamental commonality - Kim was the grandson of a "traitor" and Yi's father defected to North Korea on ideological grounds during the Korean War and left his family behind. The consequences for both Kim and Yi went well beyond schoolyard hazing.

But Kim Pyong-yon was also a very colorful figure who still has a presence in modern Korean popular culture, where he is known as Kim Sakkat (after the reed or bamboo hat worn by the Korean working classes at the time).(**) When his grandfather, the magistrate of a major city, collaborated with rebels against the central government who had overrun the provincial capital and who were swept away again by the government's army, the former governor and three generations of his family were all condemned to death (not unusual in East Asia).(***) Kim and one of his brothers were hidden in the home of a former servant and escaped execution. But Kim could not escape the consequent life on the margins of society. He made a kind of living as an itinerant poet, coining clever poems for a meal or a room, sometimes winning one of the innumerable poetry contests common throughout East Asia in the 19th century (and before) in order to cash in the prize. In the legend which has built up around him he was a womanizer and a fervent fan of the byproducts of rice fermentation.

So, clearly there is much for Yi to work with here, and work with it he does. Out of the welter of legends and facts about Kim he constructs a plausible life story that holds one's interest closely. This Kim is certainly not admirable, but he is convincingly real. His hopes of regaining high status as a scholar dashed, full of resentment, bitterness and self-absorption, he abandons his wife and two small sons to fend for themselves and wanders the country making a living as mentioned. He often uses his poems as weapons to hurt or embarrass his opponents. One of the legends concerns a poetry contest with a proud monk, for which the ground rules were that if one of the combatants were unable to continue the poem according to the complex rules they had established, he would have to pull one of his own teeth out. In the legend the monk ends up toothless. This is held to be a mark of the excellence of Kim's poetic capabilities. I want to know what kind of son-of-a-bitch would even agree to such a competition. The man was bitter, bitter, bitter.

Fortunately, Kim has a chance meeting with the "Old Drunkard," who planted the seed of the realization that poetry is not rules and cleverness, but character and insight. The old man defends an attitude similar to that of the original Taoist masters Chuang-tzu and Lao-tzu. The Old Drunkard equated "poet" with "sage". Though it was only a seed, and the story of Kim's new life as itinerant poet was just beginning, the seed was to germinate and sprout. After various adventures and internal development, Yi's Kim eventually realizes that the true poet's poem is his life, that the true poet is a sage. Worldly ambition and the bitterness and resentment that come with unfulfilled ambition are unutterably irrelevant. The book ends with Kim's apotheosis as witnessed by his eldest son...

In the process of telling this story of Kim, Yi also provides a picture of life in Korea at the end of the Choson era, when the social fabric was tearing under the strains of poor harvests and the total corruption of all the institutions in the country, when governments officials at all levels were interested solely in enriching themselves and maintaining their advantages, when the military would steal everything they could carry as they moved about the country beating down rebellions, and when the Confucian meritocracy was only a shadow of itself.

Western readers should be forewarned that Yi does not observe the conventions of historical fiction they are familiar with (neither does Shiba Ryotaro, though Shiba's and Yi's works vary from our expectations in different ways). In much of the text it appears that Yi intends to write a critical biography of Kim; he pulls back from the story, analyzes the evidence and proposes hypotheses and arguments. Elsewhere he empathetically projects himself directly into Kim's mind and gives us his "thoughts" and actions along the lines of historical fiction in the modern West. This inconsistency in tone and authorial stance may disturb some readers, but the more I read outside of the 19th and 20th century Western fictional canon, the less I care about such matters.(****) The crux is whether the author communicates something interesting, beautiful, moving and/or profound. No?

(*) The image above is that of a monument to Kim Pyong-yon.

(**) According to this source

http://www.ktlit.com/kim-sakkat-korea...

among others, Kim Sakkat was also influential in the Korean rap scene (!) and was mentioned by name in the first Korean rap.

(***) Though the grandfather was drawn and quartered(!), most of the family survived by scattering throughout the country until they were pardoned a few years later. Their lives were spared, but their property remained confiscated.

(****) Isn't it the case that some postmodernists reject these kinds of consistency in favor of other kinds? Conventions do help to ease communication, but they also quickly become restrictive and limiting, not only on expression but even on the ability to perceive.

Rating

http://leopard.booklikes.com/post/890...

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yi Mun-yol (이문열) is perhaps my favourite of the Korean authors from the post-war generation of Korean authors, based on his classic My Twisted Hero and his first novel, The Son of Man, which was one of my favourite reads of 2016 (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...).
The Poet tells the story of the 19th Century Korean itinerant poet 김병연 (Kim Pyeong-yeon), better known by his nickname 김삿갓 (Kim Sakkat – or Kim of the Bamboo Rain Hat.

For more on the poetry, see the English edition of his collected works – my review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

김삿갓 was born to a pivotal moment in Korea’s development:

He was born and grew up in an age when new ideas, especially the Practical Learning and Catholicism, were being introduced from China. There was no challenge to the monarchy or the system of government as such, but questions were beginning to arise in structural terms about such issues as the possession and distribution of wealth and the nature of human relationships.

As a child, 김삿갓 grew up in a noble family, but his grandfather, governor of a Northern region, was convicted of treason when he first surrender to a rebellion, then was believed to have actually joined his sympathies to the rebel. The grandfather was hung and quartered and the death sentence would normally have applied to his descendants to the 2nd generation, so the young 김삿갓 was taken to live with a family retainer as his son. Even when clemency of a sort was granted to the family, the stench of treachery still lingered.

The entire retaliatory system against treason was tenacious and thorough, even when it deigned to show a degree of leniency. They royal court might have decided against carrying out the penalty directly, but that by no means meant that the system as such had abandoned its malice towards them.
[…]
The ideology of the system, long incubated through various pedagogical methods, together with the examples of fearful punishment frequently meted out on traitors, had raised people's responses to an almost instinctive level. Not only the classes who shared in the structures and advantages of society, but even those who were the victims of those structures, had been conditioned to shudder instinctively at the very word "traitor" and to consider treason as some kind of deadly disease that could be caught merely by being in the proximity of the descendants of such a person.

이문열’s novel is ostensibly a historic retelling of 김삿갓’s life, but the author writes it as a commentary on the traditional accounts of his life, attempting to fill in the gaps and provide his own more coherent, albeit partially fiction, version. As an example, the traditional accounts start with the teenager winning a poetry competition with a polemic against the treacherous governor, not realising the family connection, only to find out afterwards that his target was his own grandfather. Here the author questions the likelihood of this – could the poet really have grown up fleeing for his life and moving from prosperity to poverty, shunned by society, without realising why - and suggests what might have happened by giving his own, unsourced account of his life up to the competition.

Ultimately, the novel equates poetry will rebellion, having little sympathy for more abstract and academic approaches:

Not all non-conformists are poets. But all poets are non-conformists. Some poets have absolutely none of the usual characteristics of a non-conformist. They are faithful to the normal order of life, laughing at its joys, weeping at its sorrows. Yet they too are non-conformists. For if a person is a poet at all, he is bound to deviate from the norm at least in the use of language. Language can rise to the heavenly realms of high poetry only when it transcends the muddy ground of practicality.

After becoming a father and seeming to settle down, 김 makes the radical decision to leave his wife and children and become an itinerant poet, donning the trademark hat that would give him the name by which he became known:

It was now, as he prepared to set out, that he put on for the first time the large bamboo hat destined in later times to give him the nickname which replaced his true name completely. He wore it to conceal himself from Heaven's gaze, to which he felt that he could no longer expose himself with a clear conscience, on account of the sin of disloyalty to the throne he had inherited with his blood from their grandfather, and the sin against family piety of which he himself had been guilty towards his grandfather, to which had to be added a further sin against piety since he had been unable to fulfil his mother's lifelong hopes.

Perhaps there was yet another feeling of guilt he hoped to hide under that all-covering bamboo shield, that arising from the pity inspired by his wife as she saw him off, trembling with a nameless dread yet never once asking him not to go, with Hak-kyun out playing childish games and little Ik-kyun nothing more than a new-born baby.


(the Korean caption reads, 'where shall [I] go today')

김삿갓 is almost as famous for his colourful life as for his, clever but cutting and often scatological, poetry but이문열’s focus is on how his poetry developed and the influences from his life that led to his poetic development.

As for the other incidents that happened in the Diamond Mountains, the reporting of them can be left to the colourful legends about him. The main concern here is his life as a poet, not as a buffoon, a philanderer, a beggar, or a sharp tongue. There is just one episode that needs to be told in detail, that involving his encounter with the Old Drunkard. For it was that meeting that finally led him to take the turning that made a poet of him.

This fateful meeting took place in the Diamond Mountains (now known as 금강산 or Mount Kumkang and in North Korea), an area to which the poet returned frequently and which inspired much of his poetry. The drunkard in question turned out to be a poet and questioned 김삿갓’s own aesthetic approach, based more on his burning sense of guilt and resentment than any real poetic sensibility:

He had set out. Away from home and kindred, from the past and its wounded, shattered ambitions. But he was still only someone deviating from the norm, not yet fully a poet. Needless to say, he frequently wrote poems, but only as one necessary accomplishment of a scholar or a pastime suitable for a gentleman, their dominant emotion was not essentially poetic, but the sentiment of resentment and idleness which now replaced the ambition that had previously burned in him.

But the Old Drunkard tells him:

”True poetry stands solely by its own worth. It doesn’t have to grovel before the powerful, it has no need to be cowed in the presence of learning. It doesn’t have to keep one eye on the feelings of the rich, it has no need to fear the hatred of the deprived. It is not to be measured with the yardstick of what is right, or weighed only on the scales of what is true. It is self-contained and self-sufficient.”

이문열 also has another purpose in mind than a simple (if worthwhile) historical novel. 이문’s novels often touch on religion and the poet’s guilt has clear echoes of original sin:

The shadow of a complicity that ultimately came to seem like a sense of original sin, on account of the way guilt with crime was considered to be inherited; with public sentiment for the preservation of the system more like an obsession than simple obedience and the lust for revenge always being revived by the inertia of the lower administration, he eventually came to consider the state and its laws as nothing but latent violence.

And equally pertinently the stain on his record equally echoes that of those whose families end up caught on opposite sides of the Korean War, both in the war itself and the subsequent decades of anti-Communist/anti-capitalist persecution in the South and North respectively, a situation that applies to the author himself ( a topic explored further in the novella Meeting With My Brother, next on my 이문열 reading list).

The novel contains a clever nod to this towards the end when the poet finds himself caught up in a popular rebellion. The poetry included at this point in the novel, unlike the other poems featured which are historic originals, is actually of the author’s own invention, as the translator explains:

The revolutionary poems in this chapter, unlike the poems quoted previously, are not part of the works traditionally ascribed to the poet. They are composed by Yi Mun-yol in conscious imitation of radical "workers' poems" written in recent years in South Korea or of the militant songs of the North Korean regime.

The novel ends, movingly, with the historically documented and unsuccessful attempt of the poet’s son to make his father come back to the family home. In the novel, his son realises the attempt is ultimately futile:

Would he be able to make clouds move and flowers bloom, once back in his own shabby room with its thatched roof? Would he still be able to live lofty and indifferent like some old pine tree or a moss-covered rock, once supported by the labours of Ik-kyun, his wife, and mother, and doing his own share of trivial housekeeping chores? Would his father still be able to be a poet, in the midst of cold stares directed at an old failure come home to prepare for death, or surrounded by a throng of third-rate poets drawn like moths around a light to the faded name of someone who in youth had been famous? Would he still be able to be a poet?
[…]
The man moving away in the glimmering darkness was not his father. He was a poet, and nothing else. A poet tied down by nothing in the whole world. His father moved beyond the brushwood gate of the inn and stepped on to the grassy forest trail; at that very moment he vanished completely. "Has he turned into a tree? Or a rock? Or a white brier rose? Or the early morning mist now beginning to thicken . . . ?" As those thoughts came to him, Ik-kyun quickly changed his still unspoken words of protest into a blessing:

“Farewell. May you ever find peace and plenty in your poetry."

Ultimately a fascinating character study of a poet’s life and vocation, albeit one where the prose is very far from lyrical. The English reader also struggles a little with the poetry, which relies rather heavily on Chinese and Korea world-play (see review of the Collected Works linked above) and has to take the traditional accounts, on which the author comments, on trust.

The translation is by Brother Anthony of Taize, a truly wonderful ambassador for Anglo-Korean relations and for Korean literature, working here with Chong-wa Chung, and who also provided a very helpful introduction as well as notes on these topics where needed.



Useful reviews and articles:

The complete text of the book:
http://anthony.sogang.ac.kr/Poet.htm?...

Brother Anthony of Taize on translating Korean literature:
http://www.asymptotejournal.com/inter...

Two articles in the excellent Korean Literature in Translation website:
http://www.ktlit.com/the-poet-by-yi-m...
http://www.ktlit.com/kim-sakkat-korea...

Tony’s Reading List, the other go-to place for K-lit reviews:
https://tonysreadinglist.wordpress.co...

The Complete Review review (the go-to site for pretty much all translated literature):
http://www.complete-review.com/review...

[Yasemin Macar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Öncelikle kitap ve anlatılan hikaye çok güzel ama çevirinin kötü olması nedeniyle bu puanı veriyorum hatta 1 versem yeridir ama kitap güzel. Neyse okumak isteyen olursa ingilizcesinden okusun derim.

Google translate bile daha iyi çevirir, Korelinin çakma Türkçesiyle sohbet ediyorum gibiydi editörler ne işe yarıyorsa artık.

Hikayeye gelecek olursan Joseon döneminde kralın adamlarından Kim İksun vatan haini ilan edilip idam edilir. Kanuna göre vatan haini sayılan kişilerin kendi dahil üç soyuda yok edilir. Bunun üzerine oğulları ve torunlarıda idam edilecektir. Babasının idam edildiğini öğrenen Kim byeong'un babası abisiyle ikisini kölelikten azlettiği yardımcılarının yanına gönderir ve onun çocukları olduklarını söylemlerini ister. Çocuklar 3 sene ailelerinden uzakta bir köyde kalmaktadırlar ve anne ve babasına ne olduğunu bilmemektedirler. Soy kurutma kararı iki sene sonra kalkar ama babalarıda kaçtığı için evlatlarına anca üçüncü yıl içinde ulaşır ve onları alıp eşinin yanina götürür fakat hainin soyundan geldikleri için tüm kapılar kapanır ve ne iş bulabilirler ne de aş bu yüzden başka yere taşınmaya karar verirler. Yolda babalarının hastalığı nükseder ve ilerleyen zamanda vefat eder. Kim byeong yazmayı cok sever ve köyde düzenlenen devlet sınavı tarzinda bir yarışmaya katılır birinci olan sonra merkezde devlet sınavına girebilecektir. Çocukluğundan beri zorluk çekmesinden dolayı dedesi Kim İksun'u kötüleyen bir şiir yazar. Ve birinci olur ama kimlerden olduğu sorulacağı için ödülünü almaya gitmez ve gezgin bir şairle karşılasır sonrasında hikayesi başlar.

Keşke çeviri iyi olsaydı da zevkle okuyabilseydik. Nana hoca tamamen hayal kırıklığı oldu benim için 🥺 Kapakla anlatılanlarinda alakasi yok, günümüzde bir adam çizilmiş. Kim byeong köy koy gezip şiir ölürken bambudan şapka takarmış ve yüzünü gizlermiş bu yüzden de bambu şapkalı şair diye anılırmış; daha gelneksel kiyafetli bir adam çizseymis tasarimci iyi olurmuş. Gerçi çeviri kötüyken kapak iyi olsa ne olur yasemin dediğinizi duyar gibiyim 😄😄😄

[Steve]

Shiin (The Poet - 1992) is a piece of historical fiction written by one of Korea's leading contemporary novelists, Yi Mun-yol (b. 1948), which resurrects the life and times of the poet Kim Pyong-yon (1807 - 1863).(*) It appears that Yi chose to write about Kim because they had a fundamental commonality - Kim was the grandson of a "traitor" and Yi's father defected to North Korea on ideological grounds during the Korean War and left his family behind. The consequences for both Kim and Yi went well beyond schoolyard hazing.

But Kim Pyong-yon was also a very colorful figure who still has a presence in modern Korean popular culture, where he is known as Kim Sakkat (after the reed or bamboo hat worn by the Korean working classes at the time).(**) When his grandfather, the magistrate of a major city, collaborated with rebels against the central government who had overrun the provincial capital and who were swept away again by the government's army, the former governor and three generations of his family were all condemned to death (not unusual in East Asia).(***) Kim and one of his brothers were hidden in the home of a former servant and escaped execution. But Kim could not escape the consequent life on the margins of society. He made a kind of living as an itinerant poet, coining clever poems for a meal or a room, sometimes winning one of the innumerable poetry contests common throughout East Asia in the 19th century (and before) in order to cash in the prize. In the legend which has built up around him he was a womanizer and a fervent fan of the byproducts of rice fermentation.

So, clearly there is much for Yi to work with here, and work with it he does. Out of the welter of legends and facts about Kim he constructs a plausible life story that holds one's interest closely. This Kim is certainly not admirable, but he is convincingly real. His hopes of regaining high status as a scholar dashed, full of resentment, bitterness and self-absorption, he abandons his wife and two small sons to fend for themselves and wanders the country making a living as mentioned. He often uses his poems as weapons to hurt or embarrass his opponents. One of the legends is how he had a poetry contest with a proud monk, for which the ground rules were that if one of the combatants were unable to continue the poem according to the complex rules they had established, he would have to pull one of his own teeth out. In the legend the monk ends up toothless. This is held to be a mark of the excellence of Kim's poetic capabilities. I want to know what kind of son-of-a-bitch would even agree to such a competition. The man was bitter, bitter, bitter.

Fortunately, Kim has a chance meeting with the "Old Drunkard," who planted the seed of the realization that poetry is not rules and cleverness, but character and insight. The old man defends an attitude similar to that of the original Taoist masters Chuang-tzu and Lao-tzu. The Old Drunkard equated "poet" with "sage". Though it was only a seed, and the story of Kim's new life as itinerant poet was just beginning, the seed was to germinate and sprout. After various adventures and internal development, Yi's Kim eventually realizes that the true poet's poem is his life, that the true poet is a sage. Worldly ambition and the bitterness and resentment that come with unfulfilled ambition are unutterably irrelevant. The book ends with Kim's apotheosis as witnessed by his eldest son...

In the process of telling this story of Kim, Yi also provides a picture of life in Korea at the end of the Choson era, when the social fabric was tearing under the strains of poor harvests and the total corruption of all the institutions in the country, when governments officials at all levels were interested solely in enriching themselves and maintaining their advantages, when the military would steal everything they could carry as they moved about the country beating down rebellions, and when the Confucian meritocracy was only a shadow of itself.

Western readers should be forewarned that Yi does not observe the conventions of historical fiction they are familiar with (neither does Shiba Ryotaro, though Shiba's and Yi's works vary from our expectations in different ways). In much of the text it appears that Yi intends to write a critical biography of Kim; he pulls back from the story, analyzes the evidence and proposes hypotheses and arguments. Elsewhere he empathetically projects himself directly into Kim's mind and gives us his "thoughts" and actions along the lines of historical fiction in the modern West. This inconsistency in tone and authorial stance may disturb some readers, but the more I read outside of the 19th and 20th century Western fictional canon, the less I care about such matters.(****) The crux is whether the author communicates something interesting, beautiful, moving and/or profound. No?

(*) The image above is that of a monument to Kim Pyong-yon.

(**) According to this source

http://www.ktlit.com/kim-sakkat-korea...

among others, Kim Sakkat was also influential in the Korean rap scene (!) and was mentioned by name in the first Korean rap.

(***) Though the grandfather was drawn and quartered(!), most of the family survived by scattering throughout the country until they were pardoned a few years later. Their lives were spared, but their property remained confiscated.

(****) Isn't it the case that some postmodernists reject these kinds of consistency in favor of other kinds? Conventions do help to ease communication, but they also quickly become restrictive and limiting, not only on expression but even on the ability to perceive.

Rating

http://leopard.booklikes.com/post/890...

[Mango · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️
La traduction laisse vraiment à désirer... Et puis l'inconstance du récit m'a gênée, un chapitre en mode disserte sur la place de la poésie au XIXeme en Corée, un chapitre en mode page Wikipedia, un chapitre en mode histoire racontée par Père Castor... Bref, pas une lecture mémorable...

[Bookandkook · Rating 2 out of 5]

Diziden kitaba uyarlama olan Gizli Bahçe'yi saymazsak Kore edebiyatından okuduğum ilk kitap oluyor Şair. Yazar burada efsaneden doğan ilginç bir halk hikayesini; meşhur şair Kim Sakkat'ın biyografisini kaleme almış. Asıl ismi Byungyeon olan şair, tarihi Kore dizilerinde sıkça gördüğümüz Joseon hanedanı zamanında yaşamış. Hikaye 1811 yılında şair 5 yaşındayken başlıyor. Dedesi Kim İksun soylu biri olmasına rağmen devlete ihanet ediyor ve soy kurutma cezasına çarptılıyor. Yani bu durumda Byungyeon, babası, abisi, kardeşi hep birlikte ölüm cezasına çarptırılmış oluyor. Byungyeon'un babası onları korumak için kölesinin yanına evlatlık olarak veriyor. Kendisi de kaçıp saklanıyor. Abi-kardeş soylu birer beyzade iken 2 sene boyunca bir kölenin çocuğuymuş gibi sıkıntı içinde yaşamak zorunda kalıyorlar. Daha sonra devlet, Kim ailesinden soy kurutma cezasını kaldırsa da ömür boyu hainin torunları olarak anılmaya, hor görülmeye devam ediyorlar. Byungyeon da ailesine eski itibarını kazandırmak için gençliğinden itibaren kendisini okumaya, yazmaya, şiire veriyor. Yazar Byungyeon'un hayat hikayesini anlatırken bu yaşadığı olayların şiirine olan etkisini de tahlil ediyor. Açıkçası kitapta hayatının anlatıldığı yerler daha ilgi çekici ve sürükleyiciyken tahlil yapılan kısımlar sıkıcıydı. Yani gerçekten şair Kim Sakkat'ın hayatını merak ediyor olsam zevkle okuyabilirdim. Ama tanımam etmem😂 Pek bilinen bir eser de değil, nereden çıktı bunu okumak derseniz; birkaç sene önce Yitik Ülke yayınlarından hediye olarak gelen kitapların içindeydi. Geçenlerde elime geçince baktım koreceden çeviriymiş başladım. 1800lü yılların Koresini, düşünce tarzını anlamak açısından güzeldi. Hatta başları dizi gibiydi diyebilirim. Ama özellikle sonlara doğru sıkıldım. 24 yaşından sonra ailesini çoluğunu çocuğunu bırakıp avare avare gezdiği, gisenglerle gününü gün ettiği kısımlar; çocukken çektiği sıkıntılar sebebiyle şaire karşı oluşan merhamet hislerimi silip süpürdü. Velhasıl tavsiye edemiyorum ama meraklısı severek okuyacaktır.

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

A novel about the life of the early nineteenth century poet Kim Pyong-yon, told as the speculations of a present day narrator. The poet was the grandson of a "traitor", Kim Ik-s0n, who was executed for his support of a rebellion against the dynasty, and as a result was ostracized and excluded from the scholarly career he might have expected. He ultimately rejected the conventions of society and became a wandering poet. The novel is based on the facts of his life and his poetry, but at the same time it has a symbolic dimension, given the similar ostracism of many South Koreans (including Yi Mun-yol himself) whose relatives supported the North Koreans in the Korean War. While the novel was interesting with the discussion of the functions of poetry, the fact that I don't know Korean and have never read any of Kim Pyong-yon's work meant that much of it was not really meaningful to me. I was particularly disappointed in the ending when it veers into mysticism.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yi Mun-Yol's "The Poet" opens with a scene of startling power: a mother from a noble Korean house keens as her four and six year old sons are sent away with a freed serf to hide them from the royal edict of execution against the entire family. The boys' destination is another serf emancipated so that he will hide them; he scolds them in public to keep up the appearance of being the true father only to apologize to them afterwards. The family's sin is to descend from a grandfather who has not only surrendered his fortress to rebels but joined them. Yi's novel is a fictional version of Kim Pyong-yon, who in the nineteenth century spent his adult life wandering across the peninsula composing poetry. (Yi has a personal interest in this story of how someone creative responds to a family member who turns against the regime, since his own father, a Communist, defected to the North). In Yi's version, rendered in unfussy prose (at least in translation) Kim abandons his own wife and children; his wanderings take him to situations that force him to reassess the story of his grandfather that cost his family so much, the poetry that sustains him both physically and spiritually, his early, hedonism and his later solidarity with the working classes, even the nature of existence itself. And yet neither Yi nor Kim (in Yi's book) addresses the glaring abandonment of his own family--by someone who knows how devastating that can be.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely beautiful and compelling narrative and a fascinating story.
this is a gorgeous little novel.

[Spinning Venus · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[John Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yi Mun-yol made a strong impression, particularly on young readers, with two early works, Son of Man (1979) and A Portrait of My Youth (1981). The theme of both is a young man’s quest for spiritual enlightenment. He returns to the theme in this work, this time following the initially young man through his entire life. Of the three works The Poet is the most interesting and also the most artistically successful.

The book begins with an Author’s Preface that is signed Yi Mun-yol and is evidently to be taken more or less at face value. He explains the genesis of the work, which he describes as a “new novel based on” the life of Kim of the Bamboo Hat (Kim Sakkat). Kim is a real historical figure, Kim Pyonyon (1807-1863), a wandering poet who is still famous today. Yi explains that he became interested in him when he learned they shared the same fate, which is to be the descendant of a traitor and bear the stigma of their ancestor’s crime. In the case of Kim the ancestor was his grandfather, an official who collaborated with rebels; in the case of Yi, it was his father, a southerner who went north during the Korean War.

Yi represents his story as based on sources not used in the official accounts of Kim’s life and differing from those accounts on some points. The narrative is straightforward and unencumbered by footnotes or other scholarly flourishes. It divides Kim’s life into stages based on what kind of poetry he composed, to whom it was addressed, and with what intention. In terms of the novel these stages represent the ”inner wanderings” of Kim as he searches for and ultimately finds the true way of the poet. He enters his final stage after an unrecorded but intense dialog with another poet known as The Old Drunkard, whom he has sought out twenty years after their original meeting.

“As a result his poetry, which had undergone various stages of transformation, finally had to be put into forms other than spoken words and written letters, which was no easy matter. As soon as he ceased to compose poems as acts of dialogue, he was no longer a poet as far as the world was concerned; … As far as other people were concerned, he was nothing more than an old traveler passing their village, looking half asleep and half awake, filled with a strange sense of self-contentment.” (p. 190)

However, what they saw was not all there was, as becomes clear at the end of the book.

[nekopaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Güney Koreli yazar Yi Mun-Yol'un tarihsel bir kurgu içerisinde bir şairin hayatını anlattığı eseri Şair, hem yazarın kendi yaşamından, hem de 19. yüzyılda yaşamış ünlü şair Kim Pyong-yon ya da bilinen adıyla Kim Sakkat'ın yaşamından yoğun izler taşımakta. Kitapta, üst sınıf bir ailenin çocuğu olarak dünyaya gelen Byungyoen'un, dedesinin isyancılara katılıp hain olarak ilan edilmesiyle birlikte değişen hayatı anlatılıyor. Dedesinin öldürülmesi ve ailesinin de soy çürütme cezası aldığı Byungyoen yıllar boyu abisi ve annesiyle birlikte kaçak hayatı yaşamak ve çevreden hain yaftası yemek zorunda kalıyor. Aile olarak statülerini yeniden kazanmaya odaklanan karakter, bir süre sonra adını temize çıkarmanın imkansız olduğunu anlayarak yazdığı zeki ve iğneleyici şiirlerle yaşamını devam ettiren gezgin bir şair haline geliyor.

Yazar Yi Mun-Yol da, kitabın karakteriyle benzer şekilde Kore Savaşı sırasında babasının Kuzey Kore'ye sığınması ve komünist olarak etiketlenmesi nedeniyle siyasi suçlu damgası yemiş ve hayatı boyunca taşınmak zorunda kalmış bir insan; bu açıdan bakıldığında Kim Sakkat'ın ve Mun-Yol'un hayatları fazlasıyla örtüşüyor.

Çocukluk ve ilk gençlik yıllarından yaşlılık dönemine kadar evre evre ve detaylı bir şekilde anlatılan Şair'in renkli kişiliği ve yaşamı okuyucuyu hiç sıkmadan ve boğmadan; gerçekçi, ilgi uyandırıcı ve akıcı bir dille anlatılmış. Mun-Yol, şairin yaşamında değişiklikleri, 1800lü yılların Kore'sini ve Choson Hanedanlığı zamanını çok güzel bir şekilde anlatmış. Kitapta bolca noktalama yanlışı yapılmış, fakat hikayenin güzel oluşu bunu görmezden gelmenizi sağlıyor. Şiirlerde yapılan kelime oyunları ve iğnelemeler bazen tam anlamıyla kavranamayabiliyor, bu da şiirlerin çeviri olmasının da verdiği anlam değişmesi ve Kore sanatına yabancı olmakla alakalı. Yine de kültürün ve Kore Edebiyatı'nın meraklıları için kesinlikle harika bir başlangıç kitabı. Tavsiye ediyorum.

[Edragone · Rating 4 out of 5]

4

Il s'agit d'un roman coréen qui essaie de retracer la vie (avec le peu d'éléments qu'on a et en la romançant) de Kim Pyong-yon, petit fils d'un traître d'Etat dont la descendance doit être punie sur trois générations. On va donc suivre les déboires et les débuts de ce poète, connue en Corée. Il parvient difficilement à vivre au départ (son père réussit à l'envoyer loin dans le pays de sorte à ce qu'il survive, sous une nouvelle identité) mais arrive à réussir ensuite en poésie. On va donc suivre ce poète à travers ses différentes rencontres qui le marqueront définitivement sur sa posture de poète.

[Ocean G · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about this man's life: http://www.ktlit.com/kim-sakkat-korea...

Although, I am more impressed by the man as a poet after reading the article than after reading the book. It is odd that the book didn't include all of these linguistic games he was able to do (it touches upon them, but just barely).

Anyway, taken together with that article, the book is quite interesting. Half biography, half historical novel.

[Phoebe Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like 'the poet' but I did not enjoy it as much as I wanted. Slow to start, it never got very exciting for me. I did not like their interpretation of the meaning of poetry as I found it rather convoluted and pretentious. The character of the poet did not appeal to me and I was not able to sympathise with him.

[Juan Gabriel Jiménez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fue una lectura apenas destacable, desconozco las causas de la frialdad con la que me dejó este libro. Puede ser que la lejanía con la cultura y tradición coreanas haya sido demasiada. El capítulo 22 del libro hizo que valiera la pena la lectura de toda la obra, por ese capítulo le doy las tres estrellas de otro modo solo le pondría una.

[Diane MT · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not really sure what to make of this one.

Soo so conflicted. Beautifully written, especially the final 50 odd pages, so messy and yet so clear. I will probably know if I actually liked it in a few months. One of those!

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best Korean lit I've read yet.

[yelenska · Rating 4 out of 5]

On suit ici l'histoire d'un poète itinérant (surnommé Kim Sakkat, 김삿갓) qui a réellement existé au 19è siècle. Au début du récit, on fait la connaissance du protagoniste, un jeune garçon qui est issu d'une famille noble et respectable et qui voit sa vie changer à tout jamais lorsque lui et sa famille sont déchus. C'est la trahison de son grand-père qui remet en cause le statut de sa famille: en effet, celui-ci, ancien gouverneur d'une province du nord, s'est rendu lorsqu'une rébellion a éclaté. Par la suite, il va même jusqu'à publier une proclamation en faveur des rebelles. Il est exécuté, et la tradition exige normalement que les deux générations suivantes le soient également. Le pardon leur est cependant accordé et on leur laisse la vie sauve; mais la honte a déteint sur leur famille et il est difficile pour tous les membres de la famille de survivre dans une société où ils sont constamment stigmatisés, une société où personne ne veut oublier ce qu'il s'est passé.

- Acquérir la poésie est justement une grande acquisition.
- En quoi consiste-t-elle ?
- Se libérer et libérer les autres.
- Qu'est-ce que ça signifie, rendre les gens libres ?
- Cela veut dire libérer le cœur et le corps de leurs contraintes. (p.121)

Ce qui m'a plu dans ce livre, c'est le fait qu'on suive le personnage principal pendant toute sa vie, de son enfance à sa mort. Cela signifie que l'on assiste à son évolution, ses introspections constantes (en tant que poète, mais aussi en tant qu'humain), ses joies et ses nombreuses déceptions. Pendant une grande partie de sa vie, il vit avec une rancune constante pour son grand-père, contre qui il composera d'ailleurs un poème plutôt violent. Le rejet auquel il doit souvent faire face met à mal son ambition principale dans la vie: faire regagner à lui et à sa famille leur ancien statut social, grâce à la poésie. Pendant ce récit il se remet souvent en question et vit à travers sa poésie, qui ne cesse d'évoluer. Des rencontres diverses et variées vont forger la personne qu'il devient vers la fin de sa vie.

Byongyon opta pour la seconde solution, espérant sa réintégration dans son ancienne classe. Il s'accrocha au savoir, comme unique voie pour parvenir à ses fins. Le désir est beaucoup plus brûlant et fort quand il est dirigé vers ce dont on a été privé. Ainsi donc, sa passion pour le savoir et ses efforts pour l'acquérir furent tout à fait particuliers par rapport à ceux de l'élite de sa génération. (p.51)

Je tire mon chapeau au traducteur qui a essayé de rendre, dans certains poèmes, les jeux de mots entre les caractères chinois et les caractères coréens, les caractères chinois pouvant être lus avec la prononciation chinoise ou coréenne. D'après ce que j'ai compris, cela lui permettait de faire des critiques acérées aux puissants, avec ironie. *espère avoir bien compris*

Petite pensée pour cette punchline: - Ca fait plus de dix ans que je mendie de l'alcool, mais, désormais, il faudra choisir les endroits. Alors que le grand-p��re a acheté sa misérable vie en vendant le roi, son descendant a maintenant hâte d'acheter son ascension sociale en vendant son grand-père. Je préfère boire de la pisse de bœuf plutôt que d'humecter ma gorge desséchée avec l'alcool offert par les courtisans qui sèment le trouble ou les fils ingrats. (p.75)

Mon chapitre préféré a été le chapitre XIV, justement le chapitre dont est tiré la citation ci-dessus. Après avoir gagné la première place au concours de poésie avec l'écriture de son poème sanglant à l'encontre de son grand-père, Byongyon ne va pas chercher son prix et il décide d'aller se souler, pour oublier. Il rencontre alors cet interlocuteur qui adore ce poème, qui le cite mot pour mot, et puis s'ensuit toute une discussion sur la poésie, sur l'importance de la famille, etc. Très bien écrit !

[Serena_cinnamonroll · Rating 2 out of 5]

Non è un libro per tutti.
Questo romanzo parla della storia di Kim Sakkat (nome d’arte di Kim Pyeongyeon, 1807-1863), nobile decaduto, diventato poeta con una lunga formazione durata una vita, passata tra stenti, difficoltà, accettazione della sua condizione, desiderio di rivalsa, fallimenti, migrazioni. Nonostante la sua fama popolare in Corea, le fonti a riguardo sono confuse ed incomplete, quindi l’autore, Yi Munyeol, unisce la tradizione orale alla sua fantasia e costruisce una biografia tra il magico e l’aspramente umano.
Devo ammettere di trovarmi in difficoltà nel dare una valutazione a questo romanzo. Se da un lato la storia è senz’altro meravigliosa e profonda, se in essa l’autore ha riversato tutto il suo eloquio e il suo talento, è altrettanto vero che lo stile mi ha, purtroppo, annoiata. Il romanzo, infatti, parte in modo avvincente e subito fa catapultare il lettore dritto nella vicenda; tuttavia, dopo pochissimi capitoli lo stile cambia radicalmente e il libro è, fino alla fine, scritto come un trattato storico: non sono infatti rare frasi come “le fonti orali ci confermano che…”, “su questa vicenda non si hanno molte fonti”, “è risaputo che…”. Questo ha di positivo il sottolineare l’importanza che ha avuto il protagonista nella tradizione orale e di conseguenza nella cultura popolare, ma va anche detto che è uno stile difficile da seguire e che può, come è successo a me, annoiare. Inoltre, a mio parere non è una lettura adatta a tutti: bisogna avere un minimo di infarinatura riguardo alla storia coreana, altrimenti la comprensione è limitata e limitante. In più, nel testo vengono citate e riportate numerose poesie di Kim Sakkat, che però al lettore italiano e non istruito in materia sembreranno, senza dubbio alcuno, banali e tutt’al più modeste. Questo perché, per capirle a fondo, va studiata la poesia coreana, vanno conosciuti gli hanja e l’han’geul, la poesia va letta ed analizzata sia dal punto di vista del significato sia da quello fonetico.
Riconosco la bellezza di questo romanzo e il virtuosismo dell’autore, ma riconosco anche che per me è stato difficile da finire e mi sono trovata a leggere (più di) qualche passaggio con la testa da un’altra parte, distratta; insomma, questo romanzo non mi ha presa, e lo stile certamente non aiuta.
Una menzione d’onore va all’eccelsa traduzione e alla postfazione, entrambe di Maurizio Riotto. In particolare, nella postfazione si pongono in confronto le vite di Yi Munyeol e di Kim Sakkat, facendo scoprire al lettore un ulteriore punto di vista e chiave di lettura, ed inoltre il traduttore chiarisce degli aspetti storico-culturali che possono essere sconosciuti o di difficile comprensione per il lettore occidentale, il che la rende una delle parti più interessanti del libro.

[Aurora Cristino · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐
"Il poeta cammina. Cammina lungo un sentiero montano quasi inaccessible, privo di qualsiasi traccia umana.Il suo passo è leggero ed egli sembra volare col vento quando il vento soffia, seguite le nuvole quando queste attraversano il cielo. Il poeta cammina come a voler trovare dei fiori selvatici, commina come se irresistibilmente chiamato dal canto degli uccelli."
Biografia romanzata della vita di Kim Pyongyon, meglio conosciuto come Kim Sakkat, poeta vagabondo impresso nell'anima del popolo coreano che a causa delle ingiustizie perpetrate dal potere e di conseguenza anche dal popolo spaventato, vive la prima parte della sua vita costretto a rinnegare la sua stessa famiglia e in seguito nella continua speranza di riottenere ciò che una volta era il suo posto nella piramide sociale. Non riuscirà mai a riscattare la sua famiglia, né a farsi strada con la sua poesia, ma nell'ultima parte della sua vita riuscirà a capirne la vera essenza.
Postfazione di Maurizio Riotto: "Ho chiesto a una vecchia donna coreana, completamente analfabeta, se mai sapesse chi fosse stato Kim Sakkat, e la risposta è stata tanto semplice quanto immediata:un poeta".

[Mi Biblioteca_Carmen Arteaga · Rating 2 out of 5]

Above all, the novel represents an inner journey of the poet Kim Sak Kat through an universe of contradictory emotions, following an event that meant the destruction of his family. The poet begins a wandering existence from a very young age, throughout the Korean peninsula, and thus, the reader can learn what Korean society was like in the 19th century, and with that background, understand the current existence of the two Koreas. Kim Sak Kat traveled to be able to drain and catalyze a pain and affront so felt, that it has stripped him of all his inner peace and prevents him from staying anywhere. The translation into Spanish, although it is successful, is not very fortunate and takes away from the beauty of the story. It's ok.

[Patty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ehh.. Interesting concept, and lots here about heritage and identity, but this writing style didn't do it for me, and the main character himself managed to always remain unsympathetic. It also seemed like the author just assumed the audience would be interested in 'him' and his story--I can't even remember his name, it's only mentioned a handful of times which further contributes to this false sense of connection we're expected to have with the character. Took me a while to finish because it put me to sleep every time I tried to read it lol. Two stars because it became substantially more interesting towards the end, but never got around to any kind of compelling theme and I think it somehow managed to strip poetry of its meaning and power by making it solely the personal tool of a confused and selfish main character rather than any kind of meaningful construct.

[Julian · Rating 2 out of 5]

dnf

[Karine · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5☆*

[Barry Welsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

KBS Korea 24 @KBSKorea24
For today’s #KoreaBookClub, @barrywelsh reviews the award-winning author Yi Mun-yol’s #novel “The Poet,” which was originally published in 1991 with the English adaptation, translated by Brother Anthony and Chung Chong-wha 정종화, following in 1995.
Yi, born in South Korea in 1948, is one of Korea's most influential writers known for his novel “Our Twisted Hero.”
Full text of the novel is available at Brother Anthony’s website
http://anthony.sogang.ac.kr/Poet.htm

To learn more, check out today's show via Youtube (KBS World Radio) or our podcast via the KBS Kong app or the Naver audio clip.

#KBSWORLDRadio #KBS월드라디오 #KBS국제방송 #Korea24 #코리아24 #영어라디오 #영어공부 #bookstagram #북스타그램 #책스타그램 #이문열 #소설 #시인 #한국문학 #정종화 #Koreanliterature #김삿갓 #김병연 #우리들의일그러진영웅 #ourtwistedhero

19:10-20:00 KST, Mon-Fri on KBS WORLD Radio.

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http://world.kbs.co.kr/service/progra...

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

How often it is in life that something looked forward to and hoped for turns out to be disappointing, and those things sprung upon us, or that we stumble across despite ourselves, are great experiences. So it is with The Poet. My wife, who has an artistic temperament, bought this book second-hand because she liked the cover art (Tiger by Song'am) and, through a mis-communication I thought she had purchased it for me owing to its subject matter. I never would have purchased or read the book if left to my own devices, and that would have been my loss.

The Poet is a fictional re-telling of the life of Kim Sakkat, a wandering poet of the early nineteenth century in Korea. Written in a dry, almost academic style, Yi Mun-yol describes how Kim's grandfather aligns himself with a rebel force, and when he is captured and executed by the King, the rest of the family fall into exile and disgrace. Kim Sakkat is unable to enter the civil service and, burdened by shame and bitterness at his fate, becomes a wandering poet. Yi uses the bare bones of this story to write about betrayal, loyalty, fame, honour, wealth, truth and of course, poetry. He does this by describing the development of Kim's poetry during his journey through life.

Early on, before Kim realises that his attempts to re-integrate into the upper classes are fruitless, he composes a prize-winning poem condemning his grandfather's treachery. Disgusted with himself for betraying his family, he begins his life as a wanderer. It is at this stage that he has what turns out to be a pivotal meeting, with an old poet in the mountains. Although Kim doesn't realise it at the time, the old poet explains to him the true meaning of poetry - to be at one with the World, not to try and change it. Kim thinks the old man a dreamer, and goes on his way.

Yi describes the stages of Kim's poetry as stages in his life: his earlier works written to try and impress the upper class milieu into which he would have liked to be accepted were technically perfect and traditional in structure and theme - supporting the status-quo. Once he realises the pathway up the social classes is barred to him, Kim consciously sides with the lower classes, and begins to write works that are revolutionary in form - incorporating Korean language with traditional Chinese characters for the first time - and proletarian in content; writing of work, drink and sex, with much more humour than in his previous works.

The final stage in his poetic journey begins after he meets the old poet again and realises that the old man was right after all. Kim's final years and poems almost call nature into being as he recites: they are poems of what is, rather than what could be, or what he'd like to be. It seems, after a life of bitterness, anger and regret that Kim will die happy.

Like all good fiction, The Poet consists of many layers. As the reader discovers in the prefatory material, Yi's father, a communist, defected from South Korea to the DPRK during the Korean War. The Poet shows Yi not only working with themes that impact on him personally, but also looking at how society as a whole deals with betrayal and "traitors". As the book develops, Kim's knowledge of his grandfather's actions grows. As a child, all he knew was that his grandfather was a traitor to the King, siding with a rebel force. Later, during his travels, he meets an ex-rebel, who describes how Kim's grandfather was trying to bring about change and a better world for those under rebel control. Later still he meets someone else who questions that version of events. Yi shows us that one needs to be careful in what one believes, as nothing is black-and-white, and no one person's motives are entirely pure.

There is a strange section towards the end of the book where Kim becomes the poet for a band of revolutionary vagabonds, writing to instil bravery into the men, and revolutionary spirit into the locals. His work becomes widely popular, but fails utterly to help the revolution - words don't replace deeds in this case. This seems to be the final step in the progression for Kim in realising that poetry and words do not get you things in the "real" world - except maybe a meal or a drink here and there - and it is best to write the poetry that resonates within oneself.

The language in the book is spare, bald and matter-of-fact. Yi, in dealing with a real life, has twisted the story to make it his own by writing in a pseudo-academic style, correcting "mistakes" in the generally accepted life of Kim. The short chapters each deal with a specific event, yet while we know some of Kim's deepest thoughts, he is still an elusive character when he finally walks out of the frame of the story in the last pages. Yi's style, at least in this translation, reminds me of David Malouf's Ransom.

Highly Recommended.

Check out my other reviews at http://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com.au/

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't see everyone liking this, but for me it was like one of those books that speaks directly to you. It tells the life of a famous 19th century Korean poet/vagabond who unfortunately hasn't made much of a jump into English, Kim Sakkat. While still a young boy, a rebellion occurs up where his grandfather is posted as a governor and when captured joins the rebels instead of accepting death. The flames are quelled, though, and his grandfather executed by the royal troops, and the family is now marked as a traitor. Originally condemned to death, even after their sentence is commuted, the stain follows them everywhere. Their lands remain confiscated, relatives will still have nothing to do with them, and no matter where the family goes, people discover their past. From this background and feelings of guilt, Kim Sakkat's poetic developments begin, and, despite winning a rural poetry competition at age 19, this Künstlerroman is far from over.

The artist's journey has been done before, but the focus of this one prevents it from getting stale. Lots of moments in the poet's life are mentioned in passing: fleeting moments with his family, his marriage, even his death barely get a mention. The important thing here is his poetic maturation and how his grandfather's crime affects him. The emphasis isn't coincidental: soon after the Korean war, Yi Mun-yol's father defected to the North and his family experienced similar treatment at the hands of others. Not too much biographical information on the writer is available in English, but it seems he dropped out of college and for the most part educated himself, also like Kim Sakkat.

The language is at times distant and academic, but there are points where the prose gets just as poetic as the poetry of its subject. Sprinkled throughout are poems that I believe Kim Sakkat actually wrote. Reading them translated was a whole different experience than what they're like in Korean, but they were still enjoyable and reminded me a lot of some Chinese poets, like Du Fu.

It's a bit light in terms of action, but if that doesn't bother you give it a try.

[Barbora Romanovská · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zase jedna literární libůstka o životě korejského básníka Kim Sakkata (vlastním jménem Kim Pjongjon, 1807 - 1863) - aristokrata původem, tulákem, milovníkem žen a dobrého vína.

......

Za soumraku ptáci na jedné větvi usínají,
za úsvitu rozletí se každý jinam.
Podívej. Lidský život už je takový,
k čemu je máčet si rukávy slzami?

......

Vždycky už budu litovat, že jsem se nedala na studium asijských jazyků. Kde jinde můžete vyjádřit květ broskvoně zopakováním znaku *hořet* nebo vrbu zopakováním znaku pro *viset*.

I Munjol zvolil těžší jazykový styl, který příliš nepomáhá ději ubíhat, naopak, usazuje, nutí vás číst po-ma-lu. Nutí vás učit se nová korejská slova! Poskytuje prostor pro váš vlastní názor na hodnoty, o kterých se zde hovoří. Autor neříká, jaký život Kim Sakkat žil, nabízí spíše možnosti, cesty, kterými se mohl básník vydat. Netrvá na svém výkladu, ale nechává strom košatit se, tu a tam zastřihne nějaký lísteček, větvičku, aby nás zase vrátil na nějakou křižovatku, ale zastřihává ty větévky něžně.

......

Chcete tedy vědět, zda-li je poezie Cesta?

"Poezie není Cesta. Ale Cesta, stejně jako Poezie, nahlíží věci v jejich původním smyslu. Cesta pouze zaměňuje jednu věc druhou, zatímco Poezie nahlíží věci beze změny takové, jaké jsou. Cesta se navíc snaží proměnit svět, kdežto Poezie chce vytvořit jednotu se světem, ve kterém zůstává."

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

best korean lit i read in that i believe it is the only korean lit ive read outside of some ssay on Take Care of My Cat for east asian language major class. poems are apparently very punny with character choices + so on but i dont think it translates well, you just get these eerie quiet funny things... story is kind of cool because its all about entrenched institutional prejudices f'ing over poor poeple, and the poet combats this by wrting blue collar songs about how noble people have topknots in their hair that look like scrotums (scrotae?) good luck yi mun yol i hope that you find peace one day