Chung Ho-seung holds poetry reading in D.C.

Poet Chung Ho-seung holds a poetry reading in Washington, D.C., on March 20. / Courtesy of Choi Yearn-hong

By Choi Yearn-hong

Poet Chung Ho-seung held a poetry reading at the Korean Cultural Center in Washington, D.C., on March 20.

In front of an audience, including many American poetry lovers, Chung read his poems and commented on Korean poetry. After the reading, many audience members stayed behind in order to chat with Chung about his poems and literary thoughts.

Considered a strong candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature in the near future, Chung is extremely popular among Koreans, despite the waning popularity of poetry today.

All of his poetry books are best sellers. He is often compared to Russia’s greatest poet, Alexander Pushkin, who offered comfort to Russian people through his poems. Poet Chung has been doing the same to Korean people who have been through pain and suffering in the so-called modernization process.

Chung’s literary power is not going away any time soon. His poems are extremely popular among Koreans, some even say the most popular in the 2,000­year history of poetry in Korea. He has written over 1,000 poems over the past four decades.

His poems appeal to the hearts and minds of people from all walks of life. He is not an academician, but a world traveller. While poetry and literature are hardly tickets to a wealthy or glamorous life, he believes his poetry provides comfort and strength to its readers. Chung told me that his poetry is for everyone, not just Korean people, not just college students. He became a travelling poet to share how work to more people.

His poem “To a Daffodil” is the most frequently quoted, listened to and read by Korean people. “Because you are lonely, that is why you are a human being.” This simple line from the poem touched the hearts of its readers and eventually turned the poem into a popular song. Many of his poems, in fact, have been adapted into songs composed and sung by popular Korean artists . For Friday evening’s poetry reading, Chung brought six of those songs.

The Korean Cultural Center was the best place for the reading and discussions between Chung and American friends and poets in town. The event proved that poetry could go beyond the national boundaries and become a cross-cultural form of communication.

Here are four of Chung’s most beloved poems, which I have translated.

“Those Whom I Love”

I do not love those who do not have their shadows.

I do not love those who do not love their shadows.

I do love those who become the shade of the tree.

The sunlight is bright because it has its shade.

Sitting under the shade of a tree,

I see the glistening sunlight coming through the leaves.

How beautiful the world is!

I do not love those who do not have their tears.

I do not love those who do not love tears.

Pleasure is not pleasure if it does not have tears.

Sitting under the shade,

I see those who wipe away someone’s tears.

“Song of Farewell”

You are leaving me.

If you can postpone your departure just a bit,

It will not be that late, because I love you.

Then, I will go first to the destination where you are heading

And become the sunset, the glow on your back.

I will adjust my dress and become a star singing for you

In the darkness when darkness creeps into the village.

“About the Bottom”

Only those who went down to the bottom can tell that the bottom was invisible.

They just say that they walked to the deepest bottom and

That those who walked to the bottom could return.

Only those who rise up from the deepest depth can say that they could not reach any further ,

Only those who return from the bottom of the floor can say that there is no further depth

And that the bottom is invisible,

Therefore, they just are rising from the deepest bottom.

“Broken into Pieces”

The earthen Buddha

I bought as a souvenir at Lumbini*

Fell down to the floor,

Broken into pieces.

Arms broken into pieces,

Legs broken into pieces,

Throat broken into pieces, and

Toes broken into pieces.

I knelt down to find glue from the drawer

To put the pieces back together.

Then, Buddha touched my head.

He who was trying to put the pieces back together

Comforted me:

“Once broken, you will live in a broken shape.

As it is.”

*Lumbini is the birthplace of the Lord Buddha in Nepal.

Dr. Yearn-hong Choi is the founding president of the Korean Poets and Writers’ Group in the United States .