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A review by suddenflamingword
Three Poets of Modern Korea by Yi Sang, Choi Young-Mi, Hahm Dong-Seon
3.0
I read this because I was hooked on Yi Sang after reading "Morning" in Guernica. I was very excited that all of Crow's-Eye View was in this book (and learning that the title is a pun in the Hangul). It didn't disappoint.
Hahm Dong-Seon and Choi Young-mi on the other hand were fine. They seem far more conventional - which isn't an insult, and might also be a consequence of translation. That said I think James Kimbrell, the translator alongside Yu Jung-yul, does a decent job in the introduction. He does a "how do you do, fellow kids" thing by starting off talking about DJ's giving shout-outs to the then 80 years dead Yi Sang. If a true story, pretty cool. Regardless, weird.
He also describes the work of the other two poets more exactly (probably assuming you picked the book up for Yi Sang or have a vague sense of early 20th century poetry) but never fully contextualizes them. You can only do so much with the space you have, but clearly for Kimbrell he wants the poems to advocate on their own behalf without history. Which, fine, not my favored approach but I respect it.
Maybe the biggest gripe with this is that it allows them to awkwardly crosshatch three poets in the name of "bring[ing]...a bit of [Korean poetry's] energy, vitality, and relevance home to American readers." More relevant to American readers today - in Kimbrell's defense this published in 2003 - is that Choi Young-Mi fired up #MeToo in South Korea by calling out SK poetry icon Ko'un for sexual harrassment.
Hahm Dong-Seon and Choi Young-mi on the other hand were fine. They seem far more conventional - which isn't an insult, and might also be a consequence of translation. That said I think James Kimbrell, the translator alongside Yu Jung-yul, does a decent job in the introduction. He does a "how do you do, fellow kids" thing by starting off talking about DJ's giving shout-outs to the then 80 years dead Yi Sang. If a true story, pretty cool. Regardless, weird.
He also describes the work of the other two poets more exactly (probably assuming you picked the book up for Yi Sang or have a vague sense of early 20th century poetry) but never fully contextualizes them. You can only do so much with the space you have, but clearly for Kimbrell he wants the poems to advocate on their own behalf without history. Which, fine, not my favored approach but I respect it.
Maybe the biggest gripe with this is that it allows them to awkwardly crosshatch three poets in the name of "bring[ing]...a bit of [Korean poetry's] energy, vitality, and relevance home to American readers." More relevant to American readers today - in Kimbrell's defense this published in 2003 - is that Choi Young-Mi fired up #MeToo in South Korea by calling out SK poetry icon Ko'un for sexual harrassment.