The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus

In-depth critical analysis of the forces shaping the Asia-Pacific...and the world.

T he Art and Lif e o f Ko rean Po et Ko Un: C ro ss-cult ural C o mmunicat io n

Bro t he r Ant ho ny o f T a i z ( An So nja e )
Ko Un was bo rn in 19 33, which means that to day he is nearer 8 0 than 70 . He is s urely Ko rea's mo s t pro lific writer and he hims elf
canno t s ay fo r s ure ho w many bo o ks he has publis hed in all. He gues s es that it mus t be abo ut 140 , vo lumes o f many different kinds
o f po etry, epic, narrative, and lyric, as well as no vels , plays , es s ays , and trans latio ns fro m clas s ical Chines e.
In the las t two decades he has made jo urneys to many parts o f the wo rld, including Aus tralia, Vietnam, the Netherlands , Mexico ,
Sweden, Venice, Is tanbul . . . He makes a deep impres s io n wherever he go es , es pecially when he is reading his po ems in the hus ky,
tens e, dramatic manner he favo rs . It s eems to make little o r no difference that mo s t o f his audience canno t unders tand a wo rd he is
s aying. He s peaks little o r no Englis h but time after time a deep co mmunicatio n is es tablis hed befo re anyo ne reads an Englis h
trans latio n o r s ummary o f what he had been s aying. After the drama o f his o wn perfo rmance, the trans latio ns us ually s o und rather
flat.

Ko Un's ability to co mmunicate beyo nd language is a gift that o ther Ko rean

writers can o nly envy him fo r. There are s o me peo ple who do no t s eem to need
wo rds in o rder to co mmunicate, it is part o f their charis ma. There are many
barriers to co mmunicatio n and many are the arts by which peo ple have tried to
o verco me them. In the cas e o f Ko Un, who canno t be every day giving readings ,
there is an urgent need to make trans latio ns o f his wo rk available. In bringing
Ko Un's writings to a wo rld audience, I am acting to make cro s s -cultural
co mmunicatio n po s s ible in o ne particular cas e.
It may be go o d to begin with a s ummary o f Ko Uns life s to ry, s ince that in turn
may help to pinpo int s o me o f the difficulties we enco unter in trans lating his
writings . He was bo rn in 19 33 and grew up in G uns an, a to wn o n the wes t co as t
o f No rth Jeo lla Pro vince. Echo es o f his childho o d experiences in the Ko rea o f
the 19 30 s and 19 40 s can be fo und in the earlier vo lumes o f the great 30 vo lume s eries kno wn as Maninbo, the final vo lumes o f which were publis hed
early in 20 10 . The traditio nal life o f the farming villages , the intens e awarenes s
o f extended family relatio ns hips , the po verty and the high level o f infant
mo rtality all make this a wo rld far remo ved even fro m mo dern Ko rea, and very
unfamiliar to no n-Ko rean readers . Readers are expected to kno w that when Ko
Un was a child, Ko rea was under Japanes e rule, and to kno w what that s ignifies
fo r Ko reans s till to day.
In 19 50 , war bro ke o ut and Ko Un was caught up in almo s t unimaginably painful s ituatio ns , which were in s tro ng co ntradictio n with
the warm human co mmunity he had gro wn up in, as Ko reans and o uts ide fo rces s laughtered each o ther merciles s ly. As a child, Ko Un
had been s o mething o f a pro digy, learning clas s ical Chines e at an early age with great facility, and enco untering the wo rld o f po etry
as a s cho o lbo y thro ugh the chance dis co very o f a bo o k o f po ems written by a famo us leper-po et. His s ens itivity was no t that o f an
o rdinary 18 -year-o ld and he experienced a deep cris is when co nfro nted with the reality o f human wickednes s and cruelty. His
experiences included the murder o f members o f his family and the death o f his firs t lo ve as well as days s pent carrying co rps es to
burial. He po ured acid into his ears in an attempt to blo ck o ut the "no is e" o f this dreadful wo rld, an act that left him permanently
deaf in o ne ear.
The traumas o f war might have des tro yed him co mpletely but he to o k refuge in a temple and the mo nk caring fo r him decided that
his o nly ho pe o f finding a way o ut o f his to rment wo uld be by beco ming a Buddhis t mo nk, leaving the wo rld at a time when the wo rld
was a very ugly place. His great intellectual s kills meant that he rapidly became kno wn in Buddhis t circles and after the Ko rean War
ended he was given res po ns ibilities . Mo re impo rtant to Ko Un were his experience o f life o n the ro ad as he acco mpanied his mas ter,
the famo us mo nk Hyo bo ng, o n endles s jo urneys aro und the ravaged co untry. Hyo bo ng had been a judge during the Japanes e perio d
and had quit the wo rld to beco me a mo nk after being fo rced to co ndemn s o meo ne to death.
Ko Un's character is intens e, unco mpro mis ing, he is eas ily driven to emo tio nal extremes and he s o o n began to react agains t what he
felt was the exces s ively fo rmal religio s ity o f many mo nks . The reader o f his wo rk has s o metimes to fo llo w him thro ugh s hado ws
cas t by intens e des pair. He felt o bliged to s to p living as a mo nk and in the early 19 6 0 s he became a teacher in Jeju Is land. Later in
the decade he mo ved to Seo ul. Fo r s everal years he lived as a bo hemian nihilis t while Ko rea was bro ught to ward its mo dern
indus trial develo pment under the increas ingly fierce dictato rs hip o f Park Chung-hee. The climax came early in 19 70 when Ko Un went
up into the hills behind Seo ul and drank po is o n. He nearly died but was fo und and bro ught do wn to ho s pital.
In No vember 19 70 a yo ung textile-wo rker, Jeo n Tae-il, killed hims elf during a demo ns tratio n in s uppo rt o f wo rkers ' rights . Ko Un
read abo ut his death in a news paper he picked up by chance fro m the flo o r o f a bar where he had s pent the night. The impact o f s uch
a s elfles s death changed his life radically. He s ays that fro m that mo ment o n he lo s t all inclinatio n to kill hims elf. The declaratio n o f
the Yus hin refo rms in 19 72, by which Park Chung-hee became pres ident fo r life and abo lis hed demo cratic ins titutio ns , s parked
s tro ng pro tes ts amo ng writers and intellectuals as well as amo ng the s tudents who have always acted as Ko rea's co ns cience. In the
years o f demo ns tratio ns and pro tes ts that fo llo wed, Ko Un's vo ice rang o ut and he became the reco gniz ed s po kes man o f the
'dis s ident' artis ts and writers o ppo s ed to the Park regime. He was o ften arres ted and is to day hard o f hearing fro m beatings he
received then.
When Chun D o o -hwan ro s e to po wer in 19 8 0 , Ko Un was arres ted alo ng with Kim D ae-jung and many hundreds o f Ko rea's
'dis s idents ' and he was s entenced to 20 years in pris o n. It was there, as he faced the po s s ibility o f arbitrary executio n, that he
fo rmed the pro ject o f writing po ems in co mmemo ratio n o r celebratio n o f every pers o n he had ever enco untered. No o ne, he
recko ned, s ho uld ever be s imply fo rgo tten, s ince every life has immens e value and is equally precio us as his to rical reco rd. This was
the o rigin o f the po ems in the Maninbo ( Ten Thousand Lives) s eries . O nce the new regime felt s ure o f its ho ld o n po wer, mo s t o f the

pris o ners were amnes tied. Ko Un was freed in Augus t 19 8 2, in May 19 8 3 he married Lee Sang-Wha, and in 19 8 5 a daughter was bo rn.
He went to live in Ans eo ng, two ho urs fro m Seo ul, and began a new life as a ho us eho lder, hus band, and father, while co ntinuing to
play a leading ro le in the s truggle fo r demo cracy and fo r a s o cially co mmitted literature.
There are peo ple who s ay that a po et's life has no thing to do with the po ems he o r s he writes but that is hardly tenable. It is a
theo ry that co ns iders po etry uniquely fro m a fo rmal s tandpo int and excludes every as pect o f pers o nal, s o cial, o r his to rical co ntext.
Yet every wo rd Ko Un writes is ro o ted in and info rmed by the experience o f life I have jus t o utlined. It is inco nceivable that a man with
s uch a life-s to ry s ho uld no t write po ems deeply marked by it. He has a very intens e s ens e o f his to ry, and o f his writing as a mirro r
o f Ko rean his to ry.
O n the o ther hand, his life s to ry canno t tell us anything abo ut the quality o f Ko Un's writing. He has always been s uch a co ntro vers ial
figure, fro m the mo ment his firs t bo o k o f po ems was publis hed and he reno unced his life as a Buddhis t mo nk, that in Ko rea
evaluatio n o f his wo rk canno t be s eparated fro m res po ns es to his life and s o cial o ptio ns . In particular, the Ko rean literary
es tablis hment has fo r a lo ng time been divided abo ut the general ques tio n o f the s o cial res po ns ibilities o f the writer. Many no ted
writers avo ided tro uble under dictato rs hip by refraining fro m co mmenting o n s o cial is s ues , writing po etry o f intens e s elfcenterednes s , private po nderings full o f abs trus e s ymbo lis m, uniquely co ncerned with cultivating aes thetic dimens io ns .
Ko Un and many o thers cho s e no t to fo llo w them but ins tead defied cens o rs hip to write and s peak o ut. Fo r many years Ko Un co uld
no t get a pas s po rt. He was blacklis ted as a dangero us ly s ubvers ive dis s ident. Becaus e the military regimes claimed to repres ent
true Ko rean demo cracy, any o ne who criticiz ed them was by definitio n taking s ides with the Co mmunis t enemy in the No rth! O lder
literary critics are o ften s till unwilling to admit the value o r interes t o f Ko Un's writing. They have gro wn up with fixed ideas abo ut
what co ns titutes literary excellence and he do es no t fit in.
The to pic o f this paper can perhaps bes t be encaps ulated in a ques tio n: What meaning can Ko Un's wo rk, and much mo dern Ko rean
literature, have fo r peo ple who have no t experienced Ko rean his to ry? Within any literary wo rk we find no t o nly the writer but als o an
implied audience. A Ko rean writer is no t, us ually, co ns cio us ly writing fo r a uniquely Ko rean readers hip, but writers inevitably as s ume
a certain s hared level o f experience in their readers . This is reflected, mo s t o bvio us ly, in the many things that are taken fo r granted,
that are no t explained o r mentio ned explicitly.
The mo s t familiar example o f the difficulty that aris es is the ques tio n o f the divis io n o f Ko rea. A vas t quantity o f pro s e and po etry
has been written in Ko rea o n the theme o f 'divis io n' and s uch writings are a reco gniz ed catego ry o f mo dern Ko rean literature. The
pain o f the vio lent s eparatio n o f families , the exclus io n fro m the land o f their birth o f the millio ns who fled s o uthward befo re and
during the Ko rean war, the res ulting s ens e o f alienatio n fro m full natio nal identity and the paralys is o f vital as pects o f Ko rean
his to ry, as well as the res ulting lo p-s ided cultural changes related to indus trializ atio n and wes terniz atio n in the s o uth... all thes e
to pics and the related pain need no explanatio n in Ko rea, but they are a life-experience that is hardly co nceivable to s o meo ne who
has never left the peace o f, s ay, rural Vermo nt o r o f Kyo to .
Ko Un's po etry is no t, us ually, o vertly po litical. He is no t an explicitly pro tes ting po et, as o thers have been. Almo s t the o nly po ems
that directly refer to po litical events are tho s e few he wro te after the mas s acres in Kwangju in 19 8 0 . But that o nly makes the
ques tio n mo re co mplex. Why, peo ple might as k, do es he write as he do es ? Why are there s o few directly "s o cial" po ems and s o
many really rather difficult o nes ?
The ans wer wo uld pro bably have to be the o bvio us o ne : becaus e that's the kind o f po et ( o r writer) Ko Un is . Take it o r leave it. And
that is the kind o f writing that I have been trying to trans late into Englis h fo r the pas t twenty years o r s o , having cho s en to take it
rather than leave it. I firs t wo rked o n trans latio ns o f Ko Un in tandem with the late Pro fes s o r Kim Yo ung-Mo o o f Seo ul Natio nal
Univers ity, who died in 20 0 1, s o in what fo llo ws I will o ften refer to 'we' s ince this began as a s hared pro ject.
Firs t, we publis hed in 19 9 3 a s electio n taken fro m all the po ems Ko Un had publis hed befo re 19 9 0 , The Sound of my Waves. This was
the firs t s et o f trans latio ns o f his wo rk publis hed in the Wes t. Then we publis hed with Parallax Pres s ( Berkeley) a vo lume o f 10 8
Zen Po ems to which the publis hers gave the title Beyond Self. This was republis hed as What? in 20 0 8 .

In the meantime we trans lated Ko Un's Buddhis t no vel, Hwaom-gyeong. It was finally
publis hed as Little Pilgrim in 20 0 5. In the fo llo wing years we prepared trans latio ns o f
18 0 po ems taken fro m the firs t 10 vo lumes o f the Maninbo ( Ten Thousand Lives) s eries .
They to o were publis hed in 20 0 5. In 20 0 6 , we were able to publis h ano ther vo lume o f
very s ho rt po ems , Flowers of a Moment, where the po ems are les s challenging than tho s e
o f What? The trans latio n o f a s electio n o f po ems fro m all the vo lumes Ko Un publis hed
prio r to 20 0 2 led to the publicatio n o f Songs for Tomorrow in 20 0 8 .
I have already s aid that Ko Un is no w a well-kno wn literary figure in every co ntinent,
thanks to his vis its and the direct impact o f his pres ence. Yet he canno t expres s
hims elf directly in Englis h and mus t always depend o n an interpreter, except fo r the
co mmunicatio n that pas s es directly, witho ut wo rds , by intuitio n and mutual s ympathy.
In any cas e, his po etry is written in Ko rean and mus t be trans lated. Ho w to trans late it
is o ur great challenge. O nce it has been trans lated, it has to be read and appreciated.
That is where cro s s -cultural co mmunicatio n o ccurs .
I have implied that a majo r o bs tacle to reading Ko rean po etry lies in the very particular
his to rical co ntext in which it o riginates and to which it relates in o ften indirect ways . Yet
o n reflectio n, I do no t believe that that is s uch a very great pro blem. Even no n-Ko reans
s eem able to unders tand the po em in which Ko Un tells o f his childho o d ambitio n to be
empero r o f Japan.
Headmaster Abe
Headmas ter Abe Ts uto mu, fro m Japan:
a fears o me man, with his ro und glas s es ,
fiery-ho t like ho ttes t red peppers .
When he came walking clip-clo p do wn the hallway

with the clacking s o und o f his s lippers

cut o ut o f a pair o f o ld bo o ts ,
he cas t a deathly hus h o ver every clas s .
In my s eco nd year during ethics clas s
he as ked us what we ho ped to beco me in the future.
Kids replied:
I want to be a general in the Imperial Army!
I want to beco me an admiral!
I want to beco me ano ther Yamamo to Is o ro ko !
I want to beco me a nurs ing o rderly!
I want to beco me a mechanic in a plane facto ry
and make planes
to defeat the American and Britis h devils !
Then Headmas ter Abe as ked me to reply.
I leaped to my feet:
I want to beco me the Empero r!
Tho s e wo rds were no s o o ner s po ken
than a thunderbo lt fell fro m the blue abo ve:
Yo u have fo rmally blas phemed the venerable name
o f his Imperial Majes ty. Yo u are expelled this ins tant!
O n hearing that, I co llaps ed into my s eat.
But the fo rm-mas ter pleaded,
my father put o n clean clo thes and came and pleaded,
and by the s kin o f my teeth, ins tead o f expuls io n,
I was punis hed by being s ent to s pend a few mo nths
s o rting thro ugh a s tack o f ro tten barley
that s to o d in the s cho o l gro unds ,
s eparating o ut the s till us eable grains .
I was impris o ned every day in a s tench o f decay
and there, under s co rching s un and in beating rain,
I realiz ed I was all alo ne in the wo rld.

So o n after tho s e three mo nths o f punis hment were o ver,

during ethics clas s Headmas ter Abe s aid:
We're winning, we're winning, we're winning!
O nce the great Japanes e army has wo n the war, in the future
yo u penins ula peo ple will go to Manchuria, go to China,
and take impo rtant po s itio ns in go vernment o ffices !
That's what he s aid.
Then a B-29 appeared,
and as the s ilver 4-engined plane pas s ed o verhead
o ur Headmas ter cried o ut in a big vo ice:

They're devils ! That's the enemy! he cried fearles s ly.

But his s ho ulders dro o ped.
His s ho ut died away into a s o litary mutter.
Augus t 15 came. Liberatio n.
He left fo r Japan in tears .
Such a s to ry is no t s o hard to unders tand and the po ems o f Ten Thousand Lives are pro bably the eas ies t fo r no n-Ko rean readers to
unders tand. The main level o f cultural difficulty in them are the references to as pects o f traditio nal Ko rean life unfamiliar in o ther
cultures , the s liding fretwo rk do o rs , the ho t flo o rs , the kimch'i and makko lli, the red pepper pas te and the names o f peo ple. A
matter fo r fo o tno tes and intuitio n, no t mo re. Ro bert Has s , the fo rmer American Po et Laureate, wro te o f the Ten Thousand Lives
po ems in the Washington Post: "they are remarkably rich. Anecdo tal, demo tic, full o f the details o f peo ple's lives , they're no t like
anything els e I've co me acro s s in Ko rean po etry." ( Washington Post, "The Po et's Vo ice" Sunday, January 4, 19 9 8 ) They are no t like
anything els e in Ko Un's po etry, either. The s elected po ems trans lated in Songs for Tomorrow are arranged in chro no lo gical o rder, and
s o me o f the early po ems are o f a much mo re challenging kind:
Spring rain
O waves , the s pring rain falls
and dies o n yo ur s leeping s ilence.
The darknes s in yo ur waters s o ars abo ve yo u
waves
and by the s pring rain o n yo ur s leeping waters
by s pring rain even far away
far-o ff ro cks are changed to s pring.
Abo ve thes e waters where we two lie s leeping
lo o ms a ro cky mas s , all s ilence.
But s till the s pring rain falls and dies .
With po ems like this , the mo s t impo rtant quality demanded o f the reader is a familiarity with mo dern po etry, a readines s to allo w
images to wo rk witho ut a given framewo rk by which to interpret them. Ko Un's early wo rk is clo s er to the general run o f mo dern
Ko rean po etry in that res pect, with a s tro ng no te o f melancho ly and a fo ndnes s fo r puz z ling riddles . The po etic effect is o ften
dependent o n the us e o f unexpected wo rds and images , o r s eemingly irratio nal relatio ns .
Read in chro no lo gical s equence, the evo lutio n o f certain themes and characteris tics o f Ko Un's wo rk s o o n beco mes clear, and as
Ruth Welte o nce wro te: "The po litical po ems s eem richer in meaning if the reader has a kno wledge o f Ko rea's difficult mo dern
his to ry, but each po em als o s tands alo ne as s tatement o n the mo vements o f po litical s ys tems and the damages that they can
caus e. Ko Un's po ems gro w gradually mo re po litical but retain their deep s tillnes s . Even the mo s t po litically s pecific po ems have a
timeles s feel." ( The Chicago Maroon, No vember 9 , 19 9 9 ) . O ne o f the mo s t famo us o f Ko Un's "po litical po ems " is "Arrows":
Bo dy and s o ul, let's all go
trans fo rmed into arro ws !
Piercing the air
bo dy and s o ul, let's go
with no turning back
trans fixed
burdened with the pain o f s triking ho me
never to return.

O ne las t breath! No w, let's be o ff

thro wing away like rags
everything we've had fo r decades
everything we've enjo yed fo r decades
everything we've piled up fo r decades ,
happines s

all, the who le thing.

Bo dy and s o ul, let's all go
trans fo rmed into arro ws !

The air is s ho uting! Piercing the air

bo dy and s o ul, let's go !
In dark daylight, the target rus hes to wards us .
Finally, as the target to pples in a s ho wer o f blo o d
let's all, jus t o nce, as arro ws
bleed.

Never to return! Never to return!

Hail, arro ws , o ur natio n's arro ws !

Hail, o ur natio n's warrio rs ! Spirits !
Recent Ko rean his to ry has been blo o d-s tained and the memo ry o f tho s e who have died fo r freedo m, demo cracy, and reunificatio n is
regularly celebrated. Yet theirs ' is in s o me ways an ambiguo us martyrdo m, it wo uld have been s o much better if they had no t died, s o
yo ung. Ko Un's po em expres s es the feelings o f many who to o k part in the demo ns tratio ns o f the 19 70 s and 19 8 0 s at which it was
o ften read. It may no t co mmunicate s o well with peo ple living in no n-hero ic s ituatio ns o f es tablis hed demo cracy, altho ugh they
o ught to realiz e that there are many s truggles demanding o f them a s imilar level o f co mmitment, s acrifice, and ho pe. O ften they do
no t realiz e it and need Ko Un's vo ice to wake them up.
While he was a mo nk, Ko Un underwent training in what Ko reans call "Seo n" and the Englis h language calls Zen, fo llo wing the
Japanes e. In fact he plunged into the mo s t demanding and po tentially dangero us fo rm o f Zen with s uch abando n that it caus ed him a
s evere ps ychic trauma. In any cas e, Ko Un is deeply influenced by the challenge to no rmal ratio nal dis co urs e and lo gic that is fo und
in the Zen us e o f language. A certain kind o f Zen aes theticis m is familiar to many to day in America and Euro pe, again mo s tly
identified with things Japanes e. Ko rean mo nas tic Zen is alto gether a to ugher thing, I wo uld s ay, and Ko Un's Zen po ems are s urely
far mo re challenging than anything els e he wro te, bo th to trans late and to read. The Zen po ems in What? require the reader to let go
o f virtually everything:
A Single Word
To o late.
The wo rld had already heard
my wo rd
befo re I s po ke it.
The wo rm had heard.
The wo rm dribbled a cry.

Summer
The s ightles s s unflo wer fo llo ws the s un.
The s ightles s mo o nflo wer blo s s o ms in mo o nlight.
Fo o lis hnes s .
That's all they kno w.
D rago nflies fly by day
beetles by night.

A Shooting Star
Wo w! Yo u reco gniz ed me.

An Autumn Night
D addy
D addy
A cricket s ings .
Ko Un s eems to be a "po ets ' po et." Reading the Zen po ems , G ary Snyder res po nded with a po em o f his o wn:
No t jus t ho lding his Zen ins ights
And their miraculo us wo rkings tight to hims elf,
No t ho lding back to mys tify,
Playful and demo tic,
Zen s illy, real-life deep,
And a real-wo rld po et!
Ko Un o utfo xes the O ld Mas ter and the Yo ung po ets bo th!
Tributes like that are the greates t reward a trans lato r can receive. It means that co mmunicatio n has happened, and that the readers
felt co nfident they were reading what the po et had written and wanted them to read. A lo t is written to day abo ut the act o f
trans latio n and the po s itio n o f the trans lato r, but certainly, as far as po etry trans latio n go es , the trans lato rs s ho uld leave as little
s ign o f their wo rk as po s s ible. The po et mus t s peak, no t they.
Part o f the effectivenes s o f Ko Un's Zen po ems in Englis h trans latio n mus t be attributed to a third member to o ur team o f
trans lato rs . Effective trans latio ns o f Ko rean po etry into Englis h are rare becaus e there are few trans lato rs who are writers ( o r even
readers ) o f co ntempo rary Englis h po etry. It co ns titutes a s erio us limitatio n. We have been fo rtunate in finding an American po et and
writer, G ary G ach, who is willing to go thro ugh o ur vers io ns o f Ko Un's po ems , po int o ut places where the trans latio ns fail to
co mmunicate, and make s ugges tio ns fo r impro vement.
This nego tiatio n between "literal" trans latio n and "po etic" trans latio n is an extremely delicate o ne. G eo rge Steiner quo tes D ryden's
definitio n o f "to paraphras e": "to pro duce the text which the fo reign po et wo uld have written had he been co mpo s ing in o ne's o wn
to ngue". ( After Babel p.351) All theo ries o f trans latio n and co mmunicatio n derive fro m that.
Ko Un has es tablis hed his characteris tic way o f writing po etry, and the wo rks fro m co llectio ns publis hed in the 19 9 0 s that we are at
pres ent trans lating o ften s ho w him trans fo rming s imple mo ments o f everyday experience into po etry by a s tro ke o f imaginatio n, the
irruptio n o f an unexpected co nnectio n. This can be s een as a deliberate s trategy o f 'defamiliariz atio n' which means that his readers
can never kno w what will co me next. His mo re recent po ems are lo nger than the Zen po ems but far richer than the quite s imple
evo cative narratives o f the Ten Thousand Lives. An example, cho s en at rando m, might be "One Apple":
Fo r o ne mo nth, two mo nths , even three o r fo ur,
a man painted o ne apple.
And he kept o n painting

while the apple

ro tted,
dried up,
until yo u co uld no lo nger tell if it was an apple o r what.

In the end, tho s e paintings were no lo nger

o f an apple at all.
No t paintings o f apples ,

in the end, tho s e paintings were o f s hriveled things ,

go o d-fo r-no thing things ,
that's all they were.

But the painter

gained s trength, letting him kno w the wo rld in which he lived.

He gained s trength, letting him realiz e there were details

he co uld never paint.

He to s s ed his brus h as ide.

D arknes s arrived,
ruthles s ly trampling his paintings .

He to o k up his brus h again,

to paint the darknes s .
The apple was no mo re,
but s tarting fro m there
emerged paintings o f all that is no t apple.
If that s eems to o lo ng o r challenging, readers have the o ptio n o f the s ho rt po ems in Flowers of a Moment:
The s un is s etting
A wis h:
to beco me a wo lf beneath a fat full mo o n
*
I have s pent the who le day talking abo ut o ther peo ple again
and the trees are watching me
as I go ho me
*
Exhaus ted
the mo ther has fallen as leep
s o her baby is lis tening all alo ne
to the s o und o f the night train
*
O ne rainy s pring day
I lo o ked o ut o nce o r twice
wo ndering if s o meo ne wo uld be co ming by
To day, mo re than 30 vo lumes o f trans latio ns o f Ko Un's wo rk into at leas t fifteen languages have been publis hed, with mo re to
co me. It might be us eful to end by giving a brief acco unt o f s o me critical res po ns es to Ko Un's wo rk. When What? was being
publis hed, Allen G ins berg wro te a mo ving preface which is o ne o f the earlies t in-depth res po ns es to Ko Un written by a no n-Ko rean,
wes tern po et:
Familiar with s o me o f his earlier po ems in trans latio n, es pecially s o me o f the later tricks ter-like naturalis tic life
s ketches o f Ten Tho us and Lives -- tender po rtraits , humane, parado xical, o rdinary s to ries with hilario us twis ts &
endings , a little parallel to the Characters o f W. C. Williams and Charles Rez nico ff, I was s to pped s ho rt by the
pres ent vo lume. What? s the right title. 10 8 tho ught-s to pping Ko an-like mental firecrakers . ( . . .) Ko Un backtracks
fro m earlier Craz y Wis do m narratives and here pres ents what I take to be pure Zen mini-po ems . I cant acco unt fo r
them, o nly half unders tand their implicatio ns and am attracted by the nubbin o f po etry they repres ent. Hard nuts to
crack -- yet many s eem immediately nutty & empty at the s ame time. ( . . .) Ko Un is a magnificent po et, co mbinatio n
o f Buddhis t co gno s centi, pas s io nate po litical libertarian, and naturalis t his to rian. This little bo o k o f Seo n po ems
gives a glimps e o f the s evere humo ro us dis cipline beneath the pro lific variety o f his fo rms & s ubjects . Thes e
excellent trans latio ns are mo dels us eful to ins pire American Co ntemplative po ets .

Fro m 19 9 5 Ko Un began to travel abro ad regularly and in 19 9 7 we find him giving readings with G ary Snyder and with the American
Po et Laureate Ro bert Has s in Berkeley. The fo llo wing year, in 19 9 8 , Ro bert Has s devo ted a s ho rt article in the Washington Post
news paper to Ko Un. After a s ummary o f Ko Uns life in the co ntext o f mo dern Ko rean his to ry he turns at o nce to Maninbo, the wo rk
that had s truck him mo s t deeply:

O nly a handful o f the po ems have appeared in Englis h trans latio n, but they are remarkably rich. Anecdo tal, demo tic,
full o f the details o f peo ple's lives , they're no t like anything els e I've co me
acro s s in Ko rean po etry. It's to be ho ped that a fuller trans latio n o f them
will appear.
When we publis hed o ur trans latio ns fro m the firs t 10 vo lumes o f Maninbo in 20 0 5,
Ro bert Has s wro te the fo rewo rd, and then publis hed an article in the New York
Review of Books, a s plendid tribute. He recalls firs t s eeing and hearing Ko Un during a
vis it to Seo ul in 19 8 8 and, o f co urs e, that is o ne o f the mo s t impo rtant elements
in Ko Uns wo rldwide reputatio n--the impact o f hearing him perfo rm his po etry at
readings : no o ther Ko rean po et has s uch po werful charis ma. As Michael McClure
o nce wro te:
In the wo rld o f po etry his reading is unique. There is no o ne who reads like
this . Ko Un delivers his language with the intens ity o f o ne who was
fo rbidden to learn his native Ko rean language as a child, but learned it
anyway... Ko Un's po etry has the o ld-fas hio nednes s o f a muddy rut o n a
co untry ro ad after rain, and yet it is als o as s tate-o f-the-art as a D NA
micro -chip. Beneath his art I feel the mys terio us traditio nal animal and bird
s pirits , as well as age-o ld ceremo nies o f a natio n clo s e to its his to ry.

Ga ry Snyde r ( l e f t ) a nd Al l e n Gi nsbe rg
i n t he Ca sca de Mo unt a i ns, 19 65

Has s des cribes the develo pment o f mo dern Ko rean po etry thro ugh the 20 th century
befo re quo ting 2 very early po ems by Ko Un fro m The Sound of My Waves. O f the
firs t, Sleep he writes :
This is an inward po em, quietly beautiful. As Englis h readers , we're deprived
o f any s ens e o f what it reads like o r s o unds like in Ko rean. It s eems like
mid-century American free vers e, put to the us e o f plainnes s o r clarity. The
s ens atio n o f the s leeper, having o pened his eyes and clo s ed them with a
feeling that he was s till ho lding the mo o nlight, is exquis ite. The turn in the
po emthe s hado w cas t by the hunger fo r an entire puritys eems Rilkean.

O f the s eco nd, D es tructio n o f Life he writes :

This has , to my ear, the to ughmindednes s o f Ko rean Buddhis m and the kind o f raggednes s and anger I as s o ciate
with American po etry in the 19 50 s and 19 6 0 s , the yo ung Allen G ins berg o r Lero i Jo nes . I've read that Ko rean po etry
is no t s o aes thetically minded as Japanes e po etry partly becaus e it has s tayed clo s er to o ral traditio ns rather than
traditio ns o f learning, which may be what gives this po em its quality. It's mo re demo tic than "Sleep," mo re
s po ntaneo us and to ugher, les s s atis fied to res t in beauty.
Then he turns to Maninbo:
Maninbo s eems to flo w fro m a fus io n o f thes e traditio ns . Fo r anyo ne who has s pent even a little time in Ko rea, the
wo rld that s prings to life in thes e po ems is ins tantly reco gniz able, and fo r anyo ne who has tried to imagine the war
years and the des perate po verty that came after, thes e po ems will s eem to attend to a who le peo ple's experience
and to s peak fro m it. No t s urpris ingly, hunger is at the center o f the early vo lumes . Their po int o f view is the po int
o f view o f the village, their way o f s peaking abo ut the s hapes o f lives the s tuff o f village go s s ip. They are even, at
mo ments , the s treet s een with a child's eyes s o that characters co me o n s tage bearing a ten-year-o ld's s ens e o f a
neighbo rho o d's Ho meric epithets : the bo y with two co wlicks , the fat, mean lady in the co rner ho us e. The po ems
have that intimacy. Mo s t o f them are as lean as the village do gs they des cribe; in hard times peo ple's characters
s eem to s tand o ut like their bo nes and the s to ries in the po ems have therefo re a bo ny and s yno ptic clarity. It's hard
to think o f analo gs fo r this wo rk. The s ens ibility, alert, ins tinctively demo cratic, co mic, uns entimental, is a little like
William Carlo s Williams ; it is a little like Edgar Lee Mas ters 's Spo o n River Antho lo gy o r the mo re po litical and
encyclo pedic ambitio ns o f Charles Rez niko ff's Tes timo ny. The po int o f view and the o verheard quality remind me o f
the No rwegian po et Paal-Helge Haugen's Sto ne Fences , a delicio us bo o k that calls up the who le s o cial wo rld o f the
co ld war and the 19 50 s fro m the po int o f view o f a child in a farming village. Fo r the dark places the po ems are
willing to go , they can s eem in individual po ems a little like the narratives o f Ro bert Fro s t, but neither Mas ters 's
wo rk no r Fro s t's has Ko Un's co mbinatio n o f pungent village go s s ip and epic reach. The characters , village wives ,
s to rekeepers , s nake catchers , beggars , farm wo rkers , call up a who le wo rld.

Mo s t s triking is the way in which Has s links Ko Uns wo rk to po etry by a variety o f po ets fro m vario us co untries , s eeking to s ituate
him by s imilarities and differences in a univers al po etic co ntext. Yet his co mments als o s ho w a s tro ng awarenes s o f the impo rtance
o f co ntext in unders tanding Ko Uns wo rk, fo r he keeps referring to the co ncrete events o f Ko rean his to ry and to its culture. Ko Un
has written that no po em can be univers al becaus e every po em aris es within a particular po et in a particular place at a particular
mo ment and in a particular language. Has s unders tands this , and he co ncludes ;
perhaps it is eno ugh to no tice the fertility o f Ko Un's po etic res o urces . O ne wo uld think that the po ems wo uld begin
to s eem fo rmulaic, that the ways o f calling up a life wo uld begin to be repetitive, and they never are. In that way it is
a bo o k o f wo nders in its mix o f the lives o f o rdinary peo ple, peo ple fro m s to ries and legends , and his to rical figures .
They all take their place ins ide this extrao rdinarily rich reach o f a s ingle co ns cio us nes s . Ko Un is a remarkable po et
and o ne o f the hero es o f human freedo m in this half-century.
American readers have o ften been drawn to po etry in trans latio n becaus e o f the dramatic po litical circums tances that pro duced it

rather than by the qualities o f the wo rk its elf. But no o ne who begins
to read Ko Un's wo rk will do ubt that what matters here is the wo rk
its elf.
I have quo ted Has s at length becaus e he has written with deep
unders tanding o f s o many as pects o f Ko Uns wo rk. O ne co ns tant
dis appo intment is the lack o f extended bo o k-reviews o f o ur
trans latio ns . I do no t kno w ho w it is in o ther language-areas , but the
Englis h-s peaking literary pres s is no to rio us ly reluctant to review
trans latio ns . We all kno w that very few trans latio ns are publis hed in
Englis h, co mpared with o ther languages , perhaps becaus e s o much
is written in Englis h. Fo reign writers are, with rare exceptio ns , little
kno wn to the American o r Britis h publics and as a res ult publis hers
and bo o ks ellers pro claim, Trans latio ns do no t s ell.
O ne o ther info rmative res po ns e to Maninbo co mes in a lo ng article
o n mo dern Ko rean literature by Jo hn Feffer publis hed in The Nation
( Augus t 31, 20 0 6 ) :
This co mmemo ratio n o f Ko rean his to ry and co untrys ide,
freed fro m s trictures o f fo rm and dictio n impo s ed fro m the
o uts ide, fo llo ws in the traditio n o f minjung, o r "peo ple's "
culture. Ko Un has "go ne to the peo ple" fo r his ins piratio n,
much like the naro dniks , the Rus s ian radicals o f the
nineteenth century, and the So uth Ko rean s tudent mo vement
activis ts o f the 19 8 0 s who emulated them. But Ko Un has
no t s ummo ned up s o me ethereal co ncept o f the Peo ple.
Maninbo, his mas terpiece, is the Peo ple made fles h. Thanks
to Ko Un, they co ntinue to walk amo ng us .
O ne very impo rtant ques tio n aris es regarding what I wo uld almo s t
call the Theo ry o f Maninbo. Ho w can it bes t be read? In an article
abo ut Ko Un and Maninbo publis hed in the mo s t recent is s ue o f World
Literature Today, I wro te:
Each individual po em in Maninbo reaches o ut to all the o ther po ems , jus t as each individual pers o n o nly finds a
meaningful life in meetings with o ther peo ple, and Maninbo o nly finds its full meaning when read in that way. A
pro ces s o f antho lo giz ing, s electing jus t a few o f the bes t po ems ( as we have been fo rced to do ) des tro ys that
to tality. The o riginal title o f Ko Uns Buddhis t no vel that we trans lated as Little Pilgrim is Hwamgyng ( Avatams aka
Sutra) and the metho d o f s eeing all the po ems ( in Maninbo) as being co ntained in each o ne is an applicatio n o f that
Buddhis t s utras fundamental teaching o f the interco nnectednes s o f all things , embo died in what is kno wn as Indras
Net. Indra's net s ymbo liz es a univers e where infinitely repeated mutual relatio ns exis t between all members o f the
univers e. This idea is co mmunicated in the image o f the net o f the Vedic go d Indra. Indra's net is s us pended with a
multifaceted jewel at each o f its infinite number o f inters ectio ns , and in each jewel all the o ther jewels are perfectly
reflected. O ne is all and all is o ne.
O ne way o f interpreting that is to co nclude that every po em in every vo lume s ho uld be trans lated s o that no n-Ko rean readers may
have acces s to the full Maninbo experience. Ano ther, equally valid, is to s ay that it is eno ugh to have read jus t o ne o f the 3,9 6 0
po ems with real unders tanding; and that is no t to deny the uniquenes s o f each o ne o f them.

Brother Anthony of Taez is Emeritus Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Sogang University. A prolific translator of Korean
poetry, his books include Ko Uns The So und o f My Waves , What? 10 8 Zen Po ems , Ten Tho us and Lives , Flo wers o f a Mo nument, and
So ngs fo r To mo rro w. He wrote this article for The Asia-Pacific Journal.
Recommended citation: Brother Anthony of Taiz, "The Art and Life of Korean Poet Ko Un: Cross-cultural Communication," The Asia-Pacific
Journal, 40-2-10, October 4, 2010.
Re f e re nce s
Ko Un's ho me page
Bro ther Antho ny's ho me page
Englis h trans latio ns o f Ko Un's wo rk
1. The Sound of My Waves ( Selected po ems 19 6 0 ~ 19 9 0 ) ( Ithaca: Co rnell Univers ity Eas t As ia Series , 19 9 2) , tr. Bro ther Antho ny o f
Taiz & Kim Yo ung-Mo o .
2. Beyond Self, ( Berkeley: Parallax, USA, 19 9 7) , tr. Bro ther Antho ny o f Taiz & Kim Yo ung-Mo o .
3. Travelers Maps ( Bo s to n: Tamal Vis ta Publicatio n, 20 0 4) , tr. D avid McCann. ( A few s elected po ems )
4. Little Pilgrim, ( Berkeley: Parallax, 20 0 5) , tr. Bro ther Antho ny o f Taiz and Kim Yo ung-Mo o . ( The no vel Hwaeomgyeong)
5. Ten Thousand Lives ( LA: G reen Integer Pres s , 20 0 5) , tr. Bro ther Antho ny o f Taiz , Kim Yo ung-Mo o & G ary G ach. ( Selected po ems
fro m Maninbo vo lumes 1-10 )
6 . The Three Way Tavern ( LA: UC Pres s , 20 0 6 ) , tr. Clare Yo u & Richard Silberg ( Selected po ems )
7. Flowers of a Moment ( New Yo rk: BO A, 20 0 6 ) , tr. Bro ther Antho ny o f Taiz , Kim Yo ung-Mo o & G ary G ach ( Trans latio n o f the po ems

in the co llectio n Sunganui kkot)

8 . Abiding Places: Korea South and North ( Vermo nt: Tupelo , 20 0 6 ) , tr. Sunny Jung & Hillel Schwartz ( Selected po ems fro m the
co llectio n Namgwa buk)
9 . What? ( Berkeley: Parallax, 20 0 8 ) tr. Bro ther Antho ny at Taiz & Kim Yo ung-Mo o . ( A new editio n o f Beyond Self)
1 0 Songs for Tomorrow: Poems 1960-2002, ( LA: G reen Integer, 20 0 8 ) , tr. Bro ther Antho ny o f Taiz , Kim Yo ung-Mo o & G ary G ach
( Selected po ems )
11. Himalaya Poems, ( LA: G reen Integer, 20 10 ) tr. Bro ther Antho ny o f Taiz & Lee Sang-Wha ( Selected po ems fro m the co llectio n
Himalaya)

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