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Pak Tu-jin

Pak Tu-jin (, 10 March 1916 – 16 September 1998) was a Korean poet. A voluminous writer of nature poetry, Pak Tu-jin is chiefly notable for the way he turned his subjects into symbols of the newly emerging national situation of Korea in the second half of the 20th century.

Biography

Pak Tu-jin was born in Anseong, Keiki-dō, Korea, Empire of Japan. He later often referred nostalgically to his birth place in his poetry. His family was too poor to give him any formal education, but two early poems of his appeared in the publication Munjang (Literary Composition) in 1939. After Korea's liberation from Imperial Japanese rule, Pak co-founded the Korean Young Writers' Association alongside Kim Dongni, Cho Yeonhyeon, and Seo Jeongju. During that time, he shared a first collection of poetry with fellow poets Pak Mog-wol and Cho Chi-hun. This was the Blue Deer Anthology (Cheongnokjip, 1946), which was followed by individual collections of his own, Hae (The Sun, 1949), Odo (A Prayer at Noon, 1953) and several more, all distinguished by their treatment of nature.

Pak worked in a managerial position until 1945, then in publishing, and later as a professor in various universities. Among the awards given his poetry were the Asian Free Literature Prize (1956), Seoul City Cultural Award (1962), Samil Culture Award (1970), Korean Academy of Art Prize (1976) and the Inchon Award (1988).

Work

Of Pak Tu-jin's contribution to Korean literature, the Literature Translation Institute of Korea writes:

Pak Dujin is one of the most prolific and renowned poets in all of modern Korean literature...Through verses that sing of green meadows, twittering birds, frolicking deer, and setting suns, the poet is often understood by critics to be presenting his own creative commentary on social and political issues. According to one theorist, "A Fragrant Hill" (HyangHyeon), one of Pak's first published poems, uses just such imagery to prophecy Korea's liberation from Japan. The 'peaceful co-existence of wild animals and plants' in "HyangHyeon", for example, can be interpreted as standing for the 'latent power of the nation,' with the flame that rises from the ridge symbolizing the 'creative passion of the people.'
It is because of this particular significance held by the natural symbols in Pak's poetry that the lyrical quality of his poems is set apart from the romantic, pastoral lyricism of many other representative Korean poets. The role of the natural world in Pak Tu-jin's poetry is that of a catalyst for understanding the world of man, rather than an end in itself. To 'characterize (his) poetic stance as involving a state of exchange between or joining of the self and nature', according to literary critic Cho Yeonhyeon, 'is incorrect from the outset. Pak operates from a standpoint that presupposes the impossibility of even distinguishing between the two'.
With the further publication of his collections ... Pak also began to draw a Christian ideal into his poetry and, in so doing, to display a particular poetic direction. Inspired by a powerful consciousness of his people's situation in the aftermath of the Korean War, Pak went on to publish works that demonstrated both rage and criticism in reference to various policies and social realities that he himself saw to be nothing short of absurd. Even through the sixties, with the collections The Spider and the Constellation (Geomi wa Seongjwa, 1962) and A Human Jungle (Ingan millim, 1963), Pak continued to seek a creative resolution to the trials of his time, representing history not as a given, but as a process shaped by all its participants.

The onomatopoeia, figurative expressions, and the poetic statements in prose form used so boldly are perhaps the most notable technical devices in Pak's poems from this period. With the onset of the 1970s, when he published such collections as Chronicles of Water and Stone (Suseok yeoljeon, 1973) and Poongmuhan, the nature of his poetry evolved once again; founded now on private self-realization, these poems are often said to reveal Pak's attainment of the absolute pinnacle of self-discovery at which 'infinite time and space are traveled freely.' As such, Pak, known as an artist who elevated poetry to the level of ethics and religion, is today evaluated more as a poet of thematic consciousness than of technical sophistication.

His poem "Peaches Are in Bloom" is an example of his verse, uniting cultural and personal references to make it symbolic of his country. <blockquote></blockquote>

Legacy

After Pak Tu-jin's death in 1998, a boulder with his poem "Nostalgia" inscribed on it was erected in his memory at the entrance of Anseong Municipal Library. The Pak Tu-jin Hall on the library's third floor was opened in 2008. This is dedicated to the poet's literary work and life and also has on display examples of his calligraphy and ceramics on which he had inscribed his poems. The Pak Tu-jin Memorial Society, based in the poet's home town of Anseong, hosts a national essay contest in his memory as well as the annual Pak Tu-jin Literature Festival.

Works in translation

See also

References