Overview

Jeong Ho-seung's Seeking You, translated from Korean by Brother Anthony of Taizé, explores human existence through an interconnectivity to nature and the cosmos. His poems foster a poetic voice that is filled with child wonder and aged wisdom-an approach that extends both humor and analytical depth. Seeking You stands as a testament to a poet's enduring commitment to exploring themes of love, sorrow, and the complexities of human life, all while inviting readers to look beyond themselves and find connection with the world around them.

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9781949487510

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Reviews

""Jeong Ho-seung speaks with a voice of humility, humor, and whimsy. Seeking You showcases a poet very much of this world, at its most grungy and most holy at the same moment. His poems are reader-friendly and familiar, but they also reveal a thriving imagination and a heart steeped in compassion for all living creatures."" -Zack Rogow, poet, playwright, and literary translator ""In Jeong Ho-seung's deceptively simple poems, which have earned him a large readership in South Korea, change is a constant in a world of love and suffering. Thus, an electricity pylong in the shape of a pagoda 'turns into a bird and spreads silent wings.' And from such silences the poet coaxes innumerable forms of music, which Brother Anthony has translated with his customary brilliance. Jeong Ho-seung, who claims to speak with his ear and listen with his mouth, insists that he will 'keep talking in birdsong/ and hear everyone's words/ as birdsong.'"" -Christopher Merrill, poet, author of Self-Portrait with Dogwood

Author Information

Jeong Ho-seung is the most widely read and loved poet in Korea today. His poems express the joys and sorrows of life in ways that are immediately accessible to people of all ages. Born in Hadong, South Gyeongsang Province, in 1950, Jeong Ho-seung grew up in Daegu. He graduated from the Korean Language and Literature Department of Kyung-Hee University in Seoul, where he also completed a Master's degree. He gained recognition as a poet when he won a Spring Literary Award from the Joseon Ilbo newspaper. In 1982, he won a similar award for a work of fiction, but his literary career has been focused on poetry. His first published poetry collection was Seulpeumi gippeumege (Sorrow to joy, 1979); this was followed by Seoului yesu (Seoul's Jesus, 1982); then came Saebyeok pyeonji (Dawn letter, 1987), Byeolteureun ttatteuthada (Stars are warm, 1990), Saranghadaga jugeobeoryeora (Love, then die, 1997), Oerounikka saramida (Human because lonely, 1998), Nunmuri namyeon gichareul tara (If tears flow, take a train, 1999), I jalbeun sigan dongan (During this short moment, 2004), Poong (Embrace, 2007), Bapgap (Earing My Keep), 2010, and Yeohaeng ( Journey, 2013). The present collection, Dangsineul chajaseo (Seeking You), was published in 2020. The storybooks for adults, Loving and Lonesome Jar: Poetic Fables, have been translated into English, German, Chinese, and Vietnamese; his poetry collections have been translated into Japanese, Spanish, Russian, Georgian, and Mongolian as well as English. The bilingual English-Korean collections are A Letter Not Sent and Though flowers fall, I have never forgotten you (Seoul Selection, 2016). He received the Seoul City Literary Award in 1989. He has also received the Jeong Ji-yong Literary Award, the Pyeonun Literary Award, the Sanghwa Poetry Award, and the Gongcho Literary Award. Brother Anthony of Taizé (An Sonjae) was born in 1942 in England. He studied Medieval and Modern Languages at Oxford University, and in 1969 he joined the Taizé Community in France. He taught English literature at Sogang University, Seoul, for nearly three decades. He is an emeritus professor of Sogang University. Since 1990, he has published more than seventy volumes of translated works by such esteemed Korean authors as Ku Sang, Ko Un, Cheon Sang-byeong, Shin Kyeong-nim, Yi Mun-yol, and Do Jong-hwan. From 2011, he was for 10 years president of the Royal Asiatic Society in Korea. He received the Korean government's Award of Merit, Jade Crown class, in October 2008 for his work in spreading knowledge of Korean literature throughout the world. In 2015, he was awarded an honorary MBE by Queen Elizabeth for his contributions to British-Korean relations.

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