Overview

In his poetry collection, Flatfish, Moon Tae-jun offers an aesthetic that emphasizes the author’s exploration of the inner self. At times sparse and allusive, his poems use blank space and other stylistic considerations to convey a voice and thought that ranges from the contemplative to the surreal and absurd. Moon’s poems suggest Buddhist ideologies, natural images, and Korean temples, as the collection explores individual experiences within the context of a search for understanding a greater whole. While Korea is certainly the setting of these poems, the works remain largely free of cultural-specific imagery and are, instead, naturalistic or universal. This first bilingual edition is a critical resource for students, poets, translators, and general readers alike.

Full Product Details

Author:   Moon Tae-jun ,  Brandon Joseph Park ,  Jae Won Edward Chung ,  Tae-jun Moon
Publisher:   Rutgers University Press
Imprint:   Rutgers University Press
Edition:   Bilingual edition, Bilingual edition
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9781978841260

ISBN 10:   1978841264
Pages:   66
Publication Date:   14 October 2025
Recommended Age:   From 16 to 99 years
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Contents Foreword: Slow, quiet, and flat: Moon Tae-jun’s anti-speed lyric by Jae Won Edward Chung Translator’s Note Words from the Poet Part I Longing Water Lily Floor Someone Cries and Goes Back like a Rascal Old Mother Horizontal The Outside Destitution Destitution 2 Bugs, Poems, & Co. Frost One Evening  Sack Fading About that Time The Stone’s Stomach Part II Path Flatfish Flatfish 2 Flatfish 3 Nursing Dog Stars Sprout in the Winter Sky School Spread, Disease, Spread! Oh My God!  Looking at SmallMums Singing of the Tree Standing Dead What to do, What to do Metaphor of the Vine Thicket One Sad Spring The Bottom Part III The Smell of Rice I Miss Dream Mysterious Flower Vase The Noodle Shop with a Wooden Deck Allegory of the Day Moon The Marking Does Not Last Long The Gingko Tree Behind Unmun Temple Surprised by the Color The Flower Blooms I Walk A Long While One Meadow Bunting At the Sound of Mountain Rain Empty Chair Reservoir        The Crow and the Dog There is No Cypress In October When I Turn Away Part IV The Wild Goose Laughs  Small Bird The Promise of an Empty House Ah, Twenty-Four Days Oh, Thorn Lantern! Like My Mother’s Family Home, Visited Again The One Cicada into the Persimmon Tree A Day, Here, like the Autumn River Another Door Outside the Door Birthing of the Plum Blossom  Jade Cicada Wooden Block Winter Night Molding Clay Go into the Ksana The Wind, To Me   Original Korean Text: 제1부 思慕 수련  마루          누가 울고 간다 나는 돌아가 惡童처럼 老母 水平 바깥 극빈 극빈 2 벌레詩社 서리  어느 저녁에  자루 묽다 그맘때에는 돌의 배 제2부 길  가재미 가재미2 가재미3 젖 물리는 개 冬天에 별 돋고 떼  번져라 번져라 病이여 오오 이런! 小菊을 두고 강대나무를 노래함 어떡하나요, 어떡하나요 넝쿨의 비유  덤불 슬픈 샘이 하나 있다  바닥 제3부 그리운 밥 냄새 꿈 이상한 花甁 평상이 있는 국숫집 낮달의 비유 무늬는 오래 지닐 것이 못 되어요  운문사 뒤뜰 은행나무 빛깔에 놀라다  꽃이 핀다 나는 오래 걷는다 한 마리 멧새 산비 소리에 빈 의자 저수지 까마귀와 개 측백나무가 없다  시월에 내가 돌아설 때 제4부 기러기가 웃는다 작은 새  빈집의 약속 아, 24일 오, 가시등불! 언젠가 다시 가본 나의 외갓집 같은 감나무 속으로 매미 한 마리가 어느 날 내가 이곳에서 가을강처럼  門 바깥에 또 門이 매화나무의 解産  옥매미 木鐸 겨울밤 흙을 빚다 찰라 속으로 들어가다 바람이 나에게   Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors  

Reviews

""From a wild persimmon tree next to a tin-roofed house to a waning crescent moon being filled like well water, Flatfish transports us into an irresistible world. Park's translation captures a shifting landscape and the poetic voice that asks and answers the question, where will we go from here?"" -- Su Cho * author of The Symmetry of Fish * ""In these illuminating translations, Moon's vision penetrates human and nonhuman nature alike, simultaneously. In poem after poem, as the distinctions typically required to organize and navigate our world fall away, a singular, wildly fresh experience of being opens, as if our individual skins were not skin, but humanity's collective eyelid."" -- Ed Bok Lee * American Book Award–winning author of Whorled and Mitochondrial Night *

""From a wild persimmon tree next to a tin-roofed house to a waning crescent moon being filled like well water, Flatfish transports us into an irresistible world. Park's translation captures a shifting landscape and the poetic voice that asks and answers the question, where will we go from here?"" - Su Cho (author of The Symmetry of Fish) ""In these illuminating translations, Moon's vision penetrates human and nonhuman nature alike, simultaneously. In poem after poem, as the distinctions typically required to organize and navigate our world fall away, a singular, wildly fresh experience of being opens, as if our individual skins were not skin, but humanity's collective eyelid."" - Ed Bok Lee (American Book Award–winning author of Whorled and Mitochondrial Night)

Author Information

An emerging voice in South Korean literature, MOON TAE-JUN has published a number of poetry collections in Korean (Crowded Backyard, Barefeet, A Shadow’s Development, and more). In poems that range from short, broken lines to longer prose-like forms, Moon Tae-jun evokes a sense of longing, as if searching for moments in the past that help inform the present. BRANDON JOSEPH PARK is a lecturer in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at Rutgers University - New Brunswick, and in the Writing Program at Rutgers University - Newark. He is the co-translator of You Call That Music?!: Korean Popular Music Through the Generations.

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