A Boat Ready to Set Sail
The Collected Poems of Pak Yong-chŏl
- Arts & Literature
- Publisher: Resource Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2024
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Publisher's Description
The book contains the collected poems of Pak Yong-chŏl (1904-1938), one of the pioneers of modern Korean poetry. Living in an age when the whole nation was suffering from lack of national pride and futuristic vision for the country, Pak Yong-chŏl sought the meaning of his life in exploring the beauty of the Korean language in his lyric poems. Pak Yong-chŏl's life was like a flash of lightning. Living at a time when the whole nation was suffering from spiritual torpor, he had to cope with his physical illness that eventually deprived him of life in his mid-thirties. He was a believer in "art for art's sake" at a time when a number of writers were leaning to politico-social ideologies. Despite the paucity of his remaining poems, he is to be remembered as one who was eager to live and die with an ardor for the essential beauty of poesy flowing from Parnassus. His name was writ in blood, if Keats's in water.
Endorsements (2)
“This collection of Pak Yong-chǒl’s impressive ‘pure’ poems can be enjoyed in one sitting but should be pondered instead over several. Like the finest of wines, it must be savored. Sung-Il Lee’s book is a splendid addition to a growing list of twentieth-century Korean poetry in English translation.”
“In his preface to A Boat Ready to Set Sail, a collection of the poems by Pak Yong-chŏl, Sung-Il Lee says the poet’s name was ‘writ in ink,’ if Keats’ was ‘in water.’ Without any concern for the recognition of poems on pages of journals or anthologies, nay, neither the tinsel glory of prizes that shimmer in the sun but are not gold, Pak’s poetry is a cup overflowing with sunlight. The reader of this English translation is lucky to have a sip of such passionate, overflowing liquid of light to be released, if only momentarily from the dark waning moon of a depressed life. Drink and set sail!”
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