Park Dujin (10 March 1916 – 16 September 1998) was a Korean poet.
1. Life
Park Dujin was born in Anseong, 40 miles from Seoul, an area to which he often refers nostalgically in his poetry. His family was too poor to give him any formal education, but he made his literary debut publishing "Hyanghyeon" (향현 A Fragrant Hill) and "Myojisong" (묘지송 Ode to a Grave) in the journal Munjang in 1939. After Korea's liberation from Imperial Japanese rule, Park created the Korean Young Writers' Association alongside Kim Dong-ni, Cho Yeon-hyeon, and So Chong-ju. In 1946 he published his first collection of poetry, Cheongnokjip (청록집 Blue Deer Anthology) with fellow poets Park Mok-wol and Cho Jihoon. This was followed by individual collections of his own, Hae (해 The Sun), Odo (오도 A Prayer at Noon) and several more, distinguished by their treatment of nature.
Park worked in a managerial position until 1945, then in publishing, and later as a professor at various universities. Among the awards given for his poetry were the Asian Free Literature Prize (1956), Seoul City Cultural Award (1962), Samil Culture Award (1970), Korean Academy of Art Prize (1976) and the Inchon Prize (1988).
2. Writing
A prolific writer of nature poetry, Park Dujin is chiefly notable for the way he turned his subjects into symbols of the newly emerging national situation of Korea in the second half of the 20th century.
Through verses that sing of green meadows, twittering birds, frolicking deer, and setting suns, the poet is often understood by critics to be presenting his own creative commentary on social and political issues.
It is because of this particular significance held by the natural symbols in Park’s poetry that the lyrical quality of his poems is set apart from the romantic, pastoral lyricism of many other representative Korean poets. The role of the natural world in Park Dujin’s poetry is that of a catalyst for understanding the world of man, rather than an end in itself.
With the further publication of his collections, Park also began to draw a Christian ideal into his poetry and, in so doing, to display a particular poetic direction. Inspired by a powerful consciousness of his people’s situation in the aftermath of the Korean War, Park went on to publish works that demonstrated both rage and criticism in reference to various policies and social realities that he himself saw to be nothing short of absurd. Even through the sixties, with the collections Geomiwa seongjwa (거미와 성좌 The Spider and the Constellation) and Ingan millim (인간밀림 Human Jungle), Park continued to seek a creative resolution to the trials of his time, representing history not as a given, but as a process shaped by all its participants.
The onomatopoeia, figurative expressions, and the poetic statements in prose form used so boldly are perhaps the most notable technical devices in Park's poems from this period. With the onset of the 1970s, when he published such collections as Suseok yeoljeon (수석열전 Chronicles of Water and Stone) and Poongmuhan (포옹무한 Infinite Embrace), the nature of his poetry evolved once again; founded now on private self-realization, these poems are often said to reveal Park's attainment of the absolute pinnacle of self-discovery at which ‘infinite time and space are traveled freely.’ As such, Park, known as an artist who elevated poetry to the level of ethics and religion, is today evaluated more as a poet of thematic consciousness than of technical sophistication.
