Counting the Stars at Night
The Complete Works in Verse and Prose
- Arts & Literature
- Publisher: Resource Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2022
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Publisher's Description
This book contains the complete works of Yoon Dong-ju (1917-1945), one of the most beloved poets for all Koreans, and is the first attempt at English translation in their entirety, poetry and prose. Yoon's writings reflect the ardor and longing lodged in every young man's and woman's heart. In that sense, the poems contained herein are not merely the utterances of a poet who no longer lives, but a perpetual reminder of what all youths, regardless of the times they live in, may wish to utter. It is a record of the timeless longing for beauty and truth all youths harbor in their hearts.
Endorsements (3)
“In Counting the Stars at Night, we English readers are presented with the paradox of the certainty of death, vitiating existence and making any efforts in life to be basically pointless. This is a dismal thought, and yet Dong-ju’s poetry strives against this futility by exhibiting beauty and truth in every line, as if to deny the inevitability of death as the be-all and end-all.”
“Yoon Dong-ju’s poetry is a long meditation on mortality. The poet constantly foregrounds what is most transient, most fleeting, and what is most poignant, stirring the memory and reminding us that the book must close, the song must end, and that life is a series of last goodbyes. Such poems remind us to live more intensely in the present and to cherish especially the gifts of health, friendship, and love while we still have the capacity to appreciate them.”
“Yoon Dong-Ju’s poetry includes austerity, sadness, but also joyous thought, such as the image of a ripening apple. His poetry and meditative prose, fluently translated by Sung-Il Lee, a Korean scholar of medieval English poetry, is often haiku-like: ‘When the air gets damp, cool winds blow from the pines.’ His is poetry we need.”
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