Park In-hwan (August 15, 1926 – March 20, 1956) was a Korean poet and author.
1. Life
Park In-hwan was born in Inje, Gangwon-do, during the period of Japanese rule. He graduated from Kyunggi High School in 1945 and entered Pyeongyang Medical School. Once Korea was liberated, he quit school and started a small bookstore named Mariseosa in Jongno, Seoul. Park had been interested in poetry ever since his early teens and in 1946 published his first poem entitled "Geori" (거리Street) in the Kukje Shinmun newspaper. In 1949, he co-authored the anthology Saeroun Dosiwa Simindeurui Hapchang (새로운 도시와 시민들의 합창 The New City and the Chorus of Citizens) with fellow poets Kim Gyeong-rin, Kim Su-Youn and others. This book put him in the spotlight and cemented his reputation as a modernist poet.
Park was an active journalist in 1949 for the Kyunghyang Sinmun daily and later became their war correspondent in 1951. In 1955, he traveled to the United States by ship and in the same year published the Park In-hwan Poetry Collection. These poems were known for their depiction of the Bohemian experience and propensity.
Park died in March 1956, at the age of 29. He died from heart failure brought on by a marathon drinking session to commemorate the late poet Yi Sang. One week before he died, he wrote the poem "Sewori Gamyeon" (세월이 가면When Time Goes By), which was set to music and became popular all over Korea.
2. Writing
Park’s first work began in reaction to existing techniques, such as those of the Cheongrok-pa (the Blue Deer school), a school of sentimentalism that celebrated the affinity between nature and man. Though there are no extant copies of Park's first major literary work, the coterie journal Sinsiron, which he published with fellow poets Kim Gyeong-rin, Yang Byeong-sik, Kim Su-Young, Lim Ho-gwon, and Kim Byeong-uk, the general tone of the journal promoted the mission of the poet to observe and then re-construct the contemporary world with his words.
The group's anthology, Saeroun Dosiwa Simindeurui Hapchang (새로운 도시와 시민들의 합창 The New City and the Chorus of Citizens), further rejected the traditional sentimentalism of previous poets. Published in conjunction with Kim Gyeong-rin, Kim Su-Young, et al. the anthology initiated a revolutionary new school of literature that sought to create a new language through which to depict the burgeoning reality of urbanization.
Park's work during the Korean War was marked by a significant shift in tone. As witness to the death and despair that was wreaked by the fighting, Park published poems such as "Sinhotan" (신호탄 Signal Flare), "Gohyange Gaseo" (고향에 가서 Going Home), and "Munjedeoneun Geot" (문제되는 것 Problem), which expressed a profound sense of sorrow in the face of bloodshed, a sorrow that is not localized but rather a fundamental characteristic of the human condition.
Some of Park’s other poetry, such as "Bulhaenghan Sin" (불행한 신 Unfortunate God), "Geomeun Siniyeo" (검은 신이여 O Black God), and "Choehuui Hoehwa" (최후의 회화 Final dialogue), are dark works expressing the discontent and the sense of hopelessness that are particular to the modern world. Park has been criticized, however, for not wholly confronting the despair expressed in his observations of contemporary society. With the exception of "Eorin Ttarege" (어린 딸에게To My Baby Daughter) and "Hanjulgi Nunmuldo Eopsi" (한줄기 눈물도 없이Without Tears), Park is criticized for resorting to the fantastical and the foreign as means through which one can find a solution to the problems of modernity, rather than finding an answer in reality.
