Post by edwinge112 on May 31, 2013 22:05:52 GMT -5
Born in South Korea, Ko Un has lead a very interesting life, marked by many diverse and impactful events. He has been/is a "poet, novelist, literary critic, political dissident, an ex-Buddhist monk, among many other things" according to Clare You. Experiencing the Korean War as a teenager, and seeing the deaths of many close to him, Ko Un was severely haunted and eventually became a Buddhist monk for a decade.
After leaving the monastery Ko Un dealt with alcohol problems and attempted a few suicides in the next decade. Eventually Ko Un would join vigorously in the opposition to the military regime in Korea and joined the struggle for human rights.
He would be detained, tortured, and imprisoned multiple times. He lived “in a time of tear gas and poison gas, a time of blazes set by flying fire bombs” until he was finally set free in 1980s and able to move to the countryside with his family for some peace and stability.
Ko Un is a very spontaneous and prolific writer, who writes through a variety of styles such as a short poem or a long sweeping epic. He has written over one hundred works in the course of his life, and even describes himself as “I am a restless man, restless by nature.” Yet each poem requires multiple readings as they are more complex than they might seem at first, especially the shorter poems.
While he may not be as famous a poet in America, he certainly has won quite a bit of fame in Korea as he is described as one of their leading poets. He has won many prizes such as the Korean Literature Prize, and is a strong candidate to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ko Un’s poetry reflects his own life as he has gone through depression, nihilism, activism, and after a lot of turmoil, a focus on the ordinary lives in our world.
His poetry is marked by diverse themes such as the oppression of human rights of the Korean people, his love for his country, spirituality, wondering, and the significance of life.
To him, life is extremely precious, as he commented that compared to a quark which lives a nanosecond, “A day is so short, you say? You greedy guy.” He writes about sacrifices, about people who were severely impacted by wars, and many of the ordinary who are never otherwise noticed.
Ko Un desires to celebrate everybody who he meets and their lives through his poetry. This wish is the direct source of inspiration for his work Ten Thousand Lives, in which he writes about the people he has met, no matter how obscure they may be. He has written about a wandering traveler, a mother who worries about her son who left home two years ago, and a woman named Mansooni who would become a sex slave for Japanese soldiers during World War II and never returned.
Ko Un through his poetry encourages people to never give up and to keep living on no matter the circumstances. He says to “Be like a keen barley field that grows stronger and rises up when it’s trampled” and emphasizes that “as our roads change ahead we are alive.”
Now, please, join me in welcoming this very inspirational poet; ladies, and gentlemen I present to you Ko Un.
Word Count: 535
After leaving the monastery Ko Un dealt with alcohol problems and attempted a few suicides in the next decade. Eventually Ko Un would join vigorously in the opposition to the military regime in Korea and joined the struggle for human rights.
He would be detained, tortured, and imprisoned multiple times. He lived “in a time of tear gas and poison gas, a time of blazes set by flying fire bombs” until he was finally set free in 1980s and able to move to the countryside with his family for some peace and stability.
Ko Un is a very spontaneous and prolific writer, who writes through a variety of styles such as a short poem or a long sweeping epic. He has written over one hundred works in the course of his life, and even describes himself as “I am a restless man, restless by nature.” Yet each poem requires multiple readings as they are more complex than they might seem at first, especially the shorter poems.
While he may not be as famous a poet in America, he certainly has won quite a bit of fame in Korea as he is described as one of their leading poets. He has won many prizes such as the Korean Literature Prize, and is a strong candidate to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ko Un’s poetry reflects his own life as he has gone through depression, nihilism, activism, and after a lot of turmoil, a focus on the ordinary lives in our world.
His poetry is marked by diverse themes such as the oppression of human rights of the Korean people, his love for his country, spirituality, wondering, and the significance of life.
To him, life is extremely precious, as he commented that compared to a quark which lives a nanosecond, “A day is so short, you say? You greedy guy.” He writes about sacrifices, about people who were severely impacted by wars, and many of the ordinary who are never otherwise noticed.
Ko Un desires to celebrate everybody who he meets and their lives through his poetry. This wish is the direct source of inspiration for his work Ten Thousand Lives, in which he writes about the people he has met, no matter how obscure they may be. He has written about a wandering traveler, a mother who worries about her son who left home two years ago, and a woman named Mansooni who would become a sex slave for Japanese soldiers during World War II and never returned.
Ko Un through his poetry encourages people to never give up and to keep living on no matter the circumstances. He says to “Be like a keen barley field that grows stronger and rises up when it’s trampled” and emphasizes that “as our roads change ahead we are alive.”
Now, please, join me in welcoming this very inspirational poet; ladies, and gentlemen I present to you Ko Un.
Word Count: 535