Mah Chonggi (born 1939) is a Korean poet.
1. Life
Mah was born in Tokyo, Japan on January 17, 1939. He studied medicine at Yonsei University and Seoul National University. In 1959, as a third-year medical student at Yonsei University, he made his literary debut publishing the poems "Haebuhak gyosil" (해부학 교실 Anatomy Lab) and "Nado kkocheuro seoseo" (나도 꽃으로 서서 Standing as a Flower) in Hyundae Munhak magazine. His first collection of poems, Joyonghan gaeseon (조용한 개선 Quiet Triumph), was published in 1960.
After finishing his graduate research at Seoul National University in 1966, he went to the United States. He taught at Ohio State University Medical School and practiced radiology in Toledo, Ohio. Throughout his medical career, he continued to compose and publish poetry in Korean, including the collections Pyeonggyunyul 1 (평균율 1 Well-Tempered Clavier 1) and Pyeonggyunyul 2 (평균율 2 Well-Tempered Clavier 2) with fellow poets Kim Youngtae and Hwang Tong-gyu.
Since his retirement from teaching and medical practice in 2002, he has divided his time between Florida and Seoul. In Korea, he regularly lectures on ‘literature and medicine’ as a visiting professor at the medical school of Yonsei University, his alma mater.
2. Writing
The major themes in the poems of Mah are his experience as a doctor and his life abroad in Japan and especially America. The pieces marked by his medical experiences express profound compassion and hope for the ability of love to negate pain. His works dealing with life in foreign countries tend to be more complex in tone; in them he writes of his recollections of his life in Korea and the various conflicting feelings: intense patriotism, love and anger toward his fellow Koreans, and shame that stems from his reflections on his homeland. Both themes ultimately inspire the same compassion for humanity, whether for the suffering or for the uprooted, and attain a universality that has become Mah's trademark. As Mah has written:
"Since I have always believed that literature is a matter of sharing, I hope that it will continue to be loved by many in this world so full of constant wars and slaughter. Having spent much of my life as a doctor, I have always been in close touch with life. Naturally, then, the main topic of my poetry has been life. Human life is always searching for hope and love; I have written poems and accepted the trivial pains I suffered as I did so.
"I agree with those who say that every life, despite outward appearances, bears a similarly heavy burden. But while agreeing that we all have to bear heavy burdens, I also recall that the pain caused by a slightly crooked back is almost a hallmark of love. Accepting that, I continue my pilgrimage through this world in search of love." [1]
Reference
[1] http://anthony.sogang.ac.kr/MaJongGi.htm
