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Poet Choi Yearn-hong |
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Founding president of the Washington based Korean Poets and Writers Group, Choi Yearn-hong has released a new poetry book ``Moon of New York'' in English. This follows his latest poetry book, ``Autumn Vocabularies'' published in 1990.
The poetry collection vividly describes the emotions and pathos of the author's Korean-American life from 1968 when he went to Indiana University as a foreign student to his life today as a retired college professor after many years of teaching in the United States and Korea.
In his introduction, he says that his poems are ``basically his own translations from his poems in Korean into English. There may be some loss in translation, but there should
The poetry book cover of
“Moon of New York” |
remain some of the same value in the translated poems."
A total of 86 poems from "My Sail" to "Vienna Waltz" reflect his life in verse. Nostalgia for his home country is the heart of his poetry and the sustenance of his life. He shows the beauty of the "dailyness of life"-small, sparkling moments that pass everyday, some praise, some promises, and some pleas.
He also expresses his sorrow for the Korean merchants killed in the ghetto and for Korean-American people racially discriminated against in the main stream of American society; the victims' families of the Virginia Tech rampage in April 2007; and the American tragedy of the on-going war against terror.
chungay@koreatimes.co.kr |
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